Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Natural Resource Rents and Trade Openness in Countries with the Highest Carbon Emissions

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 425 - 445, 13.08.2025

Kezban Ayran Cihan

https://doi.org/10.26650/JEPR1609002

Abstract

The factor that contributes the most to environmental pollution is greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 emission, one of the main indicators of environmental degradation, has the highest volume among greenhouse gases. Therefore, the greenhouse gas that causes the most pollution to the environment among the total greenhouse gas emissions is carbon dioxide. The emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases threatens living life by causing problems such as global warming. For this reason, it is necessary to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment, policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions should be determined and implemented. There are many factors affecting carbon dioxide emissions. The primary factors are various activities carried out for economic purposes. In this study, the factors affecting environmental pollution were examined using the indicators of energy, foreign trade and income. For this purpose, the relationships of the total energy resource rents, trade openness and GDP variables with carbon dioxide emissions were investigated. In the study, panel data analysis was used with 1990-2020 data from the 14 countries with the highest carbon dioxide emissions. In the analyses, the CIPS panel unit root test, one of the second-generation unit root tests, was applied. Then, the second-generation co-integration test was applied, and as a result of this test, it was determined that there was a long-run relationship between the variables. The PDOLSMG test was applied to estimate the long-run coefficients. The results showed that natural resource rents and economic growth had a positive impact on carbon emissions. Finally, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test was applied to investigate whether there were causality relationships between the variables. As a result of the causality test, it was determined that there were bidirectional causal relationships between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide emissions, unidirectional causal relationships from GDP to carbon dioxide emissions and from trade openness to GDP.

JEL Classification : O13 , F18 , F43 , C23

Keywords

CO2 , Trade Openness , Total Resource Rents , GDP , Co-integration and Causality Analysis

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