Toward sustainable use of natural resources: Nexus between resource rents,affluence, energy intensity and carbon emissions in developing and transition economies

Sustainable use of natural resources would entail ensuring that derived economic benefits today do not undermine the welfare of generations to come. On this basis, this study examines the nexus between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions disaggregated into production and consumption-based (i.e., trade-adjusted) CO₂ emissions for a selected panel of 45 developing and transition economies over the period 1995–2017. The empirical model also incorporates the impacts of population, affluence, and energy intensity. The results show that affluence increases production-based CO₂ emissions by 1.407%, with the EKC's predicted inverted U-shaped curve only explaining consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Economic reliance on natural resource rents and energy intensification contribute 0.022% and 0.766%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in territorial production inventories and 0.035% and 0.583%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in consumption inventories. The bootstrap non-causality test shows that historical data on each variable has significant predictive power for future CO₂ emissions from both sources. The historical information about natural resource rents has significant predictive power over the future levels of affluence and energy intensity. Clearly, the results show that the environmental impact of natural resource rents is stronger when CO₂ emissions are adjusted for trade and varies among the countries, with Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe among the most affected countries. Overall, this study provides motivation for policies to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits.     

Effect of lifestyle changes and consumption patterns on environmental impact: a comparison study of Pakistan and China

Increased economic development and industrialization put strain on environment, hence causing pollution and destroying ecosystem. Generally, many different factors affect the environment. These factors include GHG emissions, deforestation, and others. These are all related to human activities on Earth. Other factors that affect environment include population, consumption patterns, and changing life styles of people due to increased income. This study involves the comparison analysis of Pakistan and China on the basis of environmental impact caused by some major driving factors. China is the second largest CO₂ emitter in the world with a population of 1.37 billion in 2016 and the second largest economy in the world. Pakistan is ranked as 40th on the basis of nominal GDP. Both the countries observed noticeable growth in economic development for over 55 years, i.e. 1960–2016. This study identifies how population, affluence, consumption, and emissions as the major factors affect environmental pollution and use ImPACT equation, or I = PACT, to calculate the environmental impact and to determine which factors affect the environment the most. The study suggests that the people of both China and Pakistan have experienced increased income for the past 50 years and this increase has led to the changes in their lifestyles, from suitable clothing and quality food to comfortable living and increased energy consumption, thus affecting environment.     

Population and development: impacts on environmental performance

Population growth and development patterns have a significant impact on the environmental performance. The issue of concern is whether population growth or the consumption/production patterns are responsible for environmental deterioration. This paper is an attempt to capture the impact of technological development, affluence, and population on environmental performance index, while previous studies had captured the impact of these three factors on environment only through CO₂ emissions. The analysis reveals that technological development and population size have a negative impact on environmental performance, whereas measures to improve affluence have a positive impact. Technological development has increased the production of energy efficient products but at the same time consumption of these products has increased manifold leading to environmental deterioration. Demographic attributes need specific attention to improve environmental performance. This paper concludes on some policy reflections on slowing the population growth as well as persuades individuals and economies to relook to their consumption and production patterns and channelize their efforts to protect the environment.     

中国城市生活垃圾产生量的区域差异-基于STIRPAT模型

基于2006~2017年的中国省级面板数据,本文以STIRPAT理论模型为基础,建立固定效应模型,分别从全国和区域两个层面深入探究人口、富裕程度和技术对城市生活垃圾产生量的区域差异.研究结果表明：（1）近年来,生活垃圾产生量快速增长,同时存在显著的区域差异;（2）从人口因素看,在全国层面上城镇化水平、人口规模、家庭规模和人口老龄化的弹性系数分别是1.152、0.585、-0.478、-0.230,对生活垃圾产生量的影响程度依次减小.在东部地区,城镇化水平提升、人口规模增多和家庭规模小型化促进生活垃圾的产生,人口老龄化增加减少生活垃圾的产生.在中西部地区,城镇化的正效应和人口老龄化的负效应明显强于东部地区,人口规模的正效应和家庭规模的正效应明显弱于东部地区;（3）从经济发展看,在全国层面上居民人均消费支出与生活垃圾产生量呈现倒N型关系.在东部地区,居民人均消费支出和人均GDP的提升促进生活垃圾的产生;（4）从技术水平看,生活能源消耗强度和市容环境卫生费用的弹性系数分别为0.120、-0.0168,区域差异不明显.