Transportation is one of the largest sectors contributing to CO2-emissions, and has doubled its emissions in 30 years. Despite this, studies of the environmental Kuznets curve (”EKC”) often focus on stationary industry emissions. Studies of the EKC have detected an N-shape, rather than an inverted U-curve, indicating that rich nation’s emissions, in fact, increase again after the downturn. Possibly, this could be explained by a trend for inhabitants of wealthy countries with high equality to purchase local products and potentially reverse a trend of dirty-industry emigration. Local production and movement of intermediate goods demand domestic goods transportation. To my knowledge, no previous research has studied how changes in GDP/capita, trade intensity and GINI-index are related to CO2-emissions from domestic goods transportation in wealthy countries with high equality. To study the relationship, mathematical tests using Panel data with Fixed Effects Regression were used. Five countries qualified for the tests, having both high equality (lowest GINI-index) and high GDP/capita, and were included in the study for the year interval 2000-2020. Test results showed a significant correlation between the following: (1) wealth coincides positively with CO2-emissions, (2) trade intensity coincides negatively with CO2-emissions and (3) GINI-index coincides positively with CO2-emissions. Methodologically, this study contributes with the estimator GDP/GINI-index, rather than GDP solely, which could be a better estimator for the richness of a country’s population. The mathematical test results indicate that domestic goods transportation could be a reason for the increased CO2-emissions from developed wealthy countries. This could be a development of the environmental Kuznets curve.

China has been experiencing great economic development and fast urbanisation since its reforms and opening-up policy in 1978. However, these changes are reliant on consumption of primary energy, especially coal, characterised by high pollution and low efficiency. China’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with carbon dioxide (CO2) being the most significant contributor, have also been increasing rapidly in the past three decades. Responding to both domestic challenges and international pressure regarding energy, climate change and environment, the Chinese government has made a point of addressing climate change since the early 2000s. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of China’s CO2 emissions and policy instruments for mitigating climate change. In the analysis, China’s CO2 emissions in recent decades were reviewed and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis examined. Using the mostly frequently studied macroeconomic factors and time-series data for the period of 1980-2008, the existence of an EKC relationship between CO2 per capita and GDP per capita was verified. However, China’s CO2 emissions will continue to grow over coming decades and the turning point in overall CO2 emissions will appear in 2078 according to a crude projection. More importantly, CO2 emissions will not spontaneously decrease if China continues to develop its economy without mitigating climate change. On the other hand, CO2 emissions could start to decrease if substantial efforts are made. China’s present mitigation target, i.e. to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 compared with the 2005 level, was then evaluated. Three business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios were developed and compared with the level of emissions according to the mitigation target. The calculations indicated that decreasing the CO2 intensity of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 is a challenging but hopeful target. To study the policy instruments for climate change mitigation in China, domestic measures and parts of international cooperation adopted by the Chinese government were reviewed and analysed. Domestic measures consist of administration, regulatory and economic instruments, while China’s participation in international agreements on mitigating climate change is mainly by supplying certified emission reductions (CERs) to industrialised countries under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The most well-known instruments, i.e. taxes and emissions trading, are both at a critical stage of discussion before final implementation. Given the necessity for hybrid policies, it is important to optimise the combination of different policy instruments used in a given situation. The Durban Climate Change Conference in 2011 made a breakthrough decision that the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol would begin on 1 January 2013 and emissions limitation or reduction objectives for industrialised countries in the second period were quantified. China was also required to make more substantial commitments on limiting its emissions. The Chinese government announced at the Durban Conference that China will focus on the current mitigation target regarding CO2 intensity of GDP by 2020 and will conditionally accept a world-wide legal agreement on climate change thereafter. However, there will be no easy way ahead for China. / QC 20120424

Pollution is one of humanity's most pressing problems. Although there are many types of pollution, air pollution is one of the main causes of global warming. Therefore, simultaneously improving environmental quality and economic growth, and studying the variables that affect this relationship, has been one of the key issues for researchers and policymakers in recent years, especially in the wake of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.This paper aims to estimate the relationship between carbon emissions, GDP per capita, renewable energy and non-renewable energy sources as well environmental taxes in G10 industrialized countries over the period 1972-2020. Regression analysis and panel data were used to answer the questions. Previous studies of the Ecological Kuznets Curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions, with most samples based on G10 member countries, have had mixed results. The environmental Kuznets curve shows that economic development initially leads to environmental degradation, but once economic growth reaches a certain level, the relationship between society and the environment begins to improve and the degree of environmental degradation decreases. From a very simple perspective, this might suggest that economic growth is good for the environment. Critics, however, argue that economic growth is not guaranteed to lead to environmental improvements, which can often backfire. At the very least, it requires very targeted policies and attitudes to ensure that economic growth goes hand in hand with environmental improvement. / <p> Tre helt olika miljö-/BNP-kurvor</p><p>Studien undersöker etablerade teorier för att beskriva sambandet mellan miljöskador och ekonomisk aktivitet, inklusive Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), Brundtland Curve Hypothesis (BCH) och Environmental Daly Curve (EDC).</p>