Currently, China is facing a challenge of sustainable development. The worsening air quality and increasing haze days in Beijing and many other cities in China have exerted serious health impacts and an economic toll. Pollution control and emission reduction have become an urgent issue that Chinese governments need to tackle. Hence, stricter Environmental laws and Clean Air Plans have been published and implemented in recent years in China. The developed countries had experienced the similar industrial development accompanying by air pollution problem during the middle of last century. Environmental legislating against helped many developed countries solve the pollution and achieved positive EKC trend – air quality improvements along with continuous economic growth. The thesis tries to study the previous lessons and experiences on pollution abatement from some developed countries and find what lesson’s China can draw from them on pollution control and changing towards a sustainable development. The thesis adopts a multi-scientific study method including case studies, economic, technological, legal and institutional analysis. The pollution abatement cases are from the US and UK, because historically the serious air smog episodes due to industrialization had happened in many cities of the two countries, which are like what is happening in China now. Case studies compare the pollution problem in Beijing, Los Angeles and London, and focus on how environmental laws work for emission reduction. The study results show that the economic phase in China now is close to the EKC turning point and is at similar phase comparing to the historical pollution treatment stages during the middle of last century in the US and UK. However, the positive EKC trend does not inevitably come without strong environmental legislation, technological development and economic-social institution sustainability transformation. The implication for China is that the current pollution control laws and its implementation in China at the crucial moment would most likely decide the future environmental, economic, and social situation in China. Loose environmental laws might cause environmental indulgence, while implementation of scientific environmental laws and standards can work effectively on emission reduction and enhancing technology and economic development at the same time. And the scientific based legislation skills from developed countries provide a good lesson to be drawn for China on how to make the laws and standards.

A relação entre economia e meio ambiente tem sido cada vez mais explorada, dado que o crescimento econômico pode ter efeitos prejudiciais sobre a natureza, contudo existe a possibilidade de conciliar crescimento com preservação do meio ambiente. A coleta e divulgação de indicadores ambientais permitiram relacioná-los com a renda per capita, o que motivou a investigação de uma hipótese conhecida como Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. O trabalho tem por finalidade estimar, através de dados em painel não estacionário, a relação entre o indicador de pressão ambiental e crescimento de renda per capita e, através da análise de dados em painel estático e dinâmico, a convergência da pegada ecológica entre os países como resultado da evidência direta e indireta, respectivamente, da existência de uma Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. A vantagem da análise está na abrangência da pegada ecológica como indicador ambiental em relação às emissões de poluentes, possuindo um caráter original por não ter sido empreendida anteriormente. Os fundamentos teóricos da análise de convergência estão no Modelo de Solow verde desenvolvido por Brock and Taylor (2010). / The relationship between economy and environment has more and more been explored, and given the potential harm that economic growth might have on nature there is a possibility to conciliate growth and environment preservation. The gathering and publishing of environmental measures allowed to establish their relationship with per capita income in an investigation of the hypothesis known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve. This work estimates the relation of environmental pressure and income per capita and also the convergence of the ecological footprint among countries, as a direct and indirect, respectively, result of the existence of a Environmental Kuznets Curve, by using static, dynamic and non-stationary panel data techniques. The advantage of this analysis is that the ecological footprint is a broader environmental index than pollution indexes. The theoretic foundation of the convergence analysis is the Green Solow model, presented by Brock and Taylor (2010).

Les tentatives récentes d’explication des liens entre l’économique et l’environnement ont permis de mettre en chantier de nouveaux domaines de recherches à priori, forts intéressants. La question globale qui se pose aux villes de l’Afrique Sub-saharienne est de savoir comment les autorités peuvent gérer de façon durable les déchets ménagers qui ne cessent de croître. Cette thèse aborde cette question au travers deux préoccupations importantes. Bien que la gestion des déchets ménagers ait été confiée à des acteurs privés, l’efficacité attendue n’est pas obtenue. En mobilisant les éléments de la théorie des externalités et de la théorie des contrats, nous avons montré que pour une intervention des acteurs privés dans le secteur des déchets ménagers soit efficace, il faut que les deux acteurs (municipalité et acteurs privés) puissent se mettre en rapport pour surmonter les difficultés relatives à l’asymétrie d’information et au comportement opportuniste qui risquent de faire obstacle à l’échange. La deuxième préoccupation concerne la responsabilisation des ménages quant aux déchets qu’ils produisent. Les études empiriques menées montrent d’une part qu’une tarification incitative dans les quartiers de haut et moyen standing permettra à la fois à la municipalité de mobiliser des ressources financières supplémentaires pour financer le service et d’autre part de réduire le volume des déchets destiné à la décharge finale. D’autre part, la promotion du tri à la source accompagnée de la mise en place d’un marché parfait de récupération de déchets triés incitera les ménages à faible revenu et vivant dans les quartiers de bas standing à participer au tri. / Recent attempts explaining the links between economy and environment allowed to start interesting new horizons of research. The main question that arises for the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa is to know how the authorities can sustainably manage the growing household waste. This thesis addresses this issue with two important concerns. Although the management of household wastehas been outsourced to private players, the expected effectiveness is not obtained. By mobilizing elements of the theory of externalities and contract theory, we showed that for effective private intervention in the household waste sector, it is necessary that the two actors (municipality and privateactors) could have a strong connection to overcome the difficulties related to the asymmetry of information and opportunistic behavior that generates the risk of having barrier for exchange. The second concern is related to the households’ responsibility for the waste they produce. The Empirical studies show, on the one hand, that pricing incentive in the areas of upper and middle class willenable, at the same time, the Municipality to generate the additional financial resources for financing their service and, on the other hand, to reduce the volume of waste destined for final discharge. Secondly, promotion of source separation accompanied by the establishment of a perfect market recovery of sorted waste encourages low-income households and inhabitants in the neighborhood of lower classes to participate in sorting.

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

New questions in a changing economy demands development of both contemporary and historical national accounts. One such question concerns economic and environmental relationships. From a national accounting perspective this issue has been approached in terms of environmental accounting. The aim of this study is to investigate how proposals for integrated environmental and economic accounting can be used for an extension of the Historical National Accounts for Sweden and for examining the long-term relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation and resource depletion. This issue is approached through methodological considerations and estimates of iron ore and timber depletion and discharge of pollutants. The conclusions are that it is possible to construct environmental historical national accounts, but that the lack of historical data and theoretical difficulties cause a high level of abstraction and other problems concerning the series. The empirical investigations show that the 19th century can be considered a period of depletion intensive growth. Furthermore, there seems to be evidence of a correlation between changes in the natural resource net prices and previous periodizations of Swedish economic development. Concerning pollutants, the analyses shows an increase of the aggregated discharges until the late 1960s. However, the pollution intensity of growth has fallen throughout the period, possibly in a pattern of long trend periods. / digitalisering@umu

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study aims to analyses the relationship between the growth of income per capita and CO2 emissions per capita in developed countries - the United States and Germany - and developing countries - Brazil and China - between 1971 and 2009 based on the hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (CKA) in its two versions, the CKA in the form of inverted U and the CKA in the form of N. The first suggests that as the income growth occurs in many countries, environmental damage tends to decrease, showing an inverted-U format. The second, on the other hand, suggests that the growth of countries per capita income take at one point to the environmental damage reduction, after reaching a very high level, the causes of environmental damage re-grow and the curve presents a new turning point and resumes an upward trajectory. It is expected that developed countries show a U-shaped inverted curve since reached such a level of income that allows them to grow with reduced environmental damage, or presenting a curve-shaped N since reached a level of income even higher which made its return emissions to be positive after a period of income growth with reduced environmental damage. Developing countries on the other hand, are expected to show linear monotonic increasing, as have not yet reached the level of income that allows them to have access to technologies that make their production processes cleaner making it grow through growth CO2 emissions and can present the descending portion of the curve. The results vary from one country to another. In some, the relationship between income growth and CO2 emissions has a curve shaped inverted-U, in others, in the shape of N, or even none of these. / O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a relação entre o crescimento da renda per capita e as emissões de CO2 per capita em países desenvolvidos Estados Unidos e Alemanha e países em desenvolvimento Brasil e China entre 1971 e 2009 tendo como base a hipótese da Curva de Kuznets Ambiental (CKA) em suas duas versões, a CKA em formato de U-invertido e a CKA em formato de N. A primeira sugere que, à medida que o crescimento da renda ocorra nos diversos países, os danos ambientais tendem a diminuir, apresentando, assim, um formato de U-invertido. A segunda, por outro lado, sugere que, embora o crescimento da renda per capita dos países leve, em certo momento a uma diminuição de danos ambientais, após alcançar um nível muito elevado, esse aumento da renda faz com que os danos ambientais voltem a crescer, que a curva apresente um novo ponto de inflexão e retome uma trajetória ascendente. Espera-se que os países desenvolvidos apresentem uma curva em formato de U-invertido, dado que alcançaram um nível de renda tal que lhes permite crescer com diminuição dos danos ambientais, ou ainda apresentem uma curva com formato de N dado que alcançaram um nível de renda ainda mais elevado que fez com que o as suas emissões voltassem a ser positivas após um período de crescimento da renda com diminuição dos danos ambientais. Dos países em desenvolvimento por outro lado, se espera que apresentem relação linear monotônica crescente, dado que ainda não atingiram o nível de renda que lhes permite ter acesso a tecnologias que tornem os seus processos produtivos mais limpos fazendo com que cresçam por meio do crescimento de emissões de CO2 e possam apresentar o trecho decrescente da curva. Os resultados obtidos variam de um país para outro. Em alguns, a relação entre crescimento da renda e emissões de CO2 apresenta uma curva em formato de U-invertido; em outros, em formato de N ou, ainda, nenhum desses.

nÃo hà / Environment topic is increasingly at stake: it is simply of great significance especially insofar as its problems are mitigated by safeguard policies. These include the very source of them: economic growth which is closely related to environmental degradation. The impacts on nature are first and foremost caused by human behavior and its plea for economic growth. This study intends to determine in what extent there is actually a relationship between the emanations of CO2 and economic growth to the countries of South American concerning the 1980-2008Âs. That relation is described according to EKC or inverted - U developed by Kuznets. In that, one employes certain variables, indeed, they are functioning as variables of control and are the following: Economic opening, technological improvements, Scale Effect, Population density. With the descriptive statistics at hand, one ensures that the income (GDPpc) is in terms of variable of control the one which has the so-called higher correlation to the emanation of CO2pc. Furthermore that can be considered both the side effect and at the same time the solution to the environmental problem. In order one can measure this result, one estimates four panel data models, but only on the first one the relationship is perceived in terms of inverted - U. Yet one must be careful with the result mentioned, for the variables of control are not handled here. Indeed, one ends up by showing the EKC hypothesis is not reached achieved / Atualmente, o meio ambiente se constitui uma das grandes preocupaÃÃes dos entes pÃblicos e populaÃÃo, a rigor justificada pela relaÃÃo entre crescimento econÃmico e a degradaÃÃo ambiental. Uma vez que os impactos causados na natureza muitas vezes vÃm de aÃÃes humanas com o intuito do desenvolvimento da economia. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se existe uma relaÃÃo entre a emissÃo de CO2 e o crescimento econÃmico dos paÃses sul-americanos no perÃodo de 1980 a 2008 na forma de âUâ â invertido, como descrito pela Curva Ambiental de Kuznets (EKC). Para isto, utiliza-se como variÃveis de controle a abertura econÃmica, progresso tecnolÃgico, efeito escala e densidade populacional. A partir das estatÃsticas descritivas, verificou-se que a renda (PIBpc) à a variÃvel de controle que apresenta uma maior correlaÃÃo com a emissÃo de CO2pc, o que pode ser considerado tanto causa quanto soluÃÃo para o problema ambiental. Para aferir os resultados, estimam-se quatro modelos de dados em painel, sendo que somente no primeiro a relaÃÃo entre a emissÃo de CO2 e a renda ocorre o formato do âUâinvertidoâ, no entanto, este resultado deve ser visto com cautela em funÃÃo da ausÃncia de variÃveis de controle o que pode gerar estimativas enviesadas. Desse modo, conclui-se que a hipÃtese da Curva Ambiental de Kuznets, conforme proposta por Grossman e Krueger (1991), para os paÃses da AmÃrica do Sul, em relaÃÃo à emissÃo de CO2pc e o PIBpc, nÃo se verifica.

A relação entre economia e meio ambiente tem sido cada vez mais explorada, dado que o crescimento econômico pode ter efeitos prejudiciais sobre a natureza, contudo existe a possibilidade de conciliar crescimento com preservação do meio ambiente. A coleta e divulgação de indicadores ambientais permitiram relacioná-los com a renda per capita, o que motivou a investigação de uma hipótese conhecida como Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. O trabalho tem por finalidade estimar, através de dados em painel não estacionário, a relação entre o indicador de pressão ambiental e crescimento de renda per capita e, através da análise de dados em painel estático e dinâmico, a convergência da pegada ecológica entre os países como resultado da evidência direta e indireta, respectivamente, da existência de uma Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. A vantagem da análise está na abrangência da pegada ecológica como indicador ambiental em relação às emissões de poluentes, possuindo um caráter original por não ter sido empreendida anteriormente. Os fundamentos teóricos da análise de convergência estão no Modelo de Solow verde desenvolvido por Brock and Taylor (2010). / The relationship between economy and environment has more and more been explored, and given the potential harm that economic growth might have on nature there is a possibility to conciliate growth and environment preservation. The gathering and publishing of environmental measures allowed to establish their relationship with per capita income in an investigation of the hypothesis known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve. This work estimates the relation of environmental pressure and income per capita and also the convergence of the ecological footprint among countries, as a direct and indirect, respectively, result of the existence of a Environmental Kuznets Curve, by using static, dynamic and non-stationary panel data techniques. The advantage of this analysis is that the ecological footprint is a broader environmental index than pollution indexes. The theoretic foundation of the convergence analysis is the Green Solow model, presented by Brock and Taylor (2010).

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-04-03T18:25:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 rejanecorreadeoliveira.pdf: 6128260 bytes, checksum: 15189c9967dc026ed861378d43cdbb89 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-04-03T19:11:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 rejanecorreadeoliveira.pdf: 6128260 bytes, checksum: 15189c9967dc026ed861378d43cdbb89 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-03T19:11:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rejanecorreadeoliveira.pdf: 6128260 bytes, checksum: 15189c9967dc026ed861378d43cdbb89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-16 / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O desmatamento das florestas tropicais é um elemento importante na questão das mudanças climáticas. No Brasil, o desmatamento provocado por focos de calor torna o país um grande emissor mundial de dióxido de carbono, um dos gases causadores do efeito estufa. Há a preocupação de que, com o avanço do desenvolvimento, a pressão sobre as florestas tropicais aumente. Dentro deste contexto, esse trabalho investigou a hipótese da Curva de Kuznets Ambiental (CKA) para a região da Amazônia Legal, isto é, se existe uma relação na forma de “U” invertido entre um índice de degradação ambiental (área desmatada anual) e o crescimento econômico (indicado pelo PIB per capita), em nível municipal, no período 20012006, utilizando um modelo para dados em painel com dependência espacial. Variáveis explicativas adicionais foram incluídas, tais como: rebanho bovino, culturas agrícolas (soja e cana-de-açúcar), extração vegetal e silvicultura, densidade populacional, crédito rural e área de floresta pré-existente. Devido ao histórico de ocupação, extensão da área e características geográficas, existe a indicação de diferenças intrarregionais importantes. A heterogeneidade espacial do parâmetros foi tratada em conjuntos de modelos com regimes espaciais distintos (macrozonas e estados). A heterogeneidade espacial extrema foi tratada pela estimação de regressões ponderadas geograficamente (RPG). Os resultados da Análise Exploratória de Dados Espaciais sugerem a existência de “clusters” em um padrão Alto-Alto (municípios com altos valores de desmatamento próximos a municípios com desmatamento também elevado) na região do Arco do Povoamento Adensado e Amazônia Central. Os resultados econométricos indicam a presença de efeitos não-observados, sendo mais adequada a estimação por efeitos fixos. O modelo global que melhor se ajusta aos dados é o modelo de erro espacial com transbordamentos espaciais; para este, foi verificada a relação da CKA na forma de “N” invertido, indicando que a área desmatada anual é maior para baixos níveis de PIB per capita, sendo decrescente à medida que o PIB aumenta, depois volta a crescer, e para níveis de renda mais elevados, torna-se decrescente. As variáveis relacionadas ao rebanho bovino, crédito rural e a existência de floresta anterior são consideradas significativas em 5%. Para os diferentes regimes espaciais, os seguintes resultados são encontrados: a) no conjunto de modelos para as três macrozonas (Amazônia Ocidental, Amazônia Central e Arco do Povoamento Adensado), a CKA não é verificada em nenhuma de suas formas; b) no conjunto de modelos que considera um regime espacial para cada estado, a hipótese da CKA é verificada na forma de “U” invertido para Mato Grosso, e na forma de “U” para o estado do Pará e monotônica crescente para o Maranhão; nos demais estados, a hipótese da CKA não é verificada. No nível extremo de heterogeneidade espacial, a estimação por regressões ponderadas geograficamente resulta em parâmetros calculados para cada município, sendo possível representar em mapa as diferentes formas encontradas para a CKA, concentradas nas porções central e nordeste da Amazônia. Os resultados mostram diferentes relações entre desmatamento e PIB per capita municipal, assim como diferentes relações do desmatamento com as demais variáveis explicativas, revelando a heterogeneidade do espaço amazônico. / The tropical deforestation is a main issue on the global climate change discussion. In Brazil, the deforestation caused by hot spots is responsible for large emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. There is always a concern about the increasing pressure over the forest as development advances. Within this context, this work aims to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis applied to Legal Amazon region: whether there is an inverted “U” relationship between an environmental degradation index (annually deforested area) and economic growth (GDP per capita) at municipal level from 2001 to 2006, using a panel data model with spatial dependence. Some other variables mentioned in the literature were considered to explain deforestation: cattle size, soybean and sugar cane crops, vegetal extraction and forestry products, population density, rural credit, and previous forest area. Additionally, there can be important intra-regional differences due to occupation history, large area and geographical aspects. The spatial heterogeneity of coefficients was considered by studying spatial regimes into two sets (macro-regions and states). The extreme coefficients spatial heterogeneity was considered by estimating the model using geographically weighted regressions (GWR). The Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) shows the presence of clusters in a High-High pattern (municipalities with high deforestation values near municipalities with high values for the deforested area also) in the Densely Populated Arch and Central Amazon. The econometric results reveal the presence of unobserved effects, being the fixed effects estimate the most appropriate one. The global model (considering the whole region) that fits the data well is the spatial error model with spillovers; for this model, the EKC relationship appears to have an inverted “N” shape, so the annual deforested area is higher for lower incomes, it decreases when GDP per capita increases, then it goes back to increase, and for higher income levels it decreases again. The variables related to cattle size, rural credit and previous forest area seems to affect the deforested area. When the spatial heterogeneity is considered by means of different spatial regimes, the following results are found: a) for the three macro-regions set of models (Occidental Amazon, Central Amazon and Densely Populated Arch), none of the shapes for the EKC relationship is verified; b) for the nine states set of models, the EKC hypothesis is found in an inverted “U” shape for Mato Grosso state, a “U” shape for Pará state and increasingly monotonic shape for Maranhão state, whereas for the other states the EKC is not found. For the extreme level of spatial heterogeneity, the geographically weighted regressions show local coefficients: it was possible to map the different shapes for EKC found mainly in central and northeastern portions of Amazon. The results show different local relationships between deforestation and GDP per capita at municipal level, and also different local relationships between deforestation and the additional variables.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2018 highlights the importance of short-lived greenhouse gasses to combat global warming. This study explores the relationship between Gross Domestic Product per capita and methane per capita. The relationship is explored in relation to the Environmental Kuznets Curve theory where the subjects to examination used are High Income Countries and Low Income Countries based on United Nation classifications in 2019. In total 47 countries are examined where 30 countries are High Income Countries and 17 are Low Income Countries. The relationships are examined for the time periods 1970 to 2017 through Fixed Effect Models. To improve accuracy additional control variables are added: Population in agriculture (% of total employment), balance of payments and forest areas. With the added control variables, the time frame used in Fixed Effect Models changes to 1991 to 2017. The different Fixed Effect Models provide inverted U-shaped relationships for Low Income Countries and uncertain results for High Income Countries according to the Environmental Kuznets Curve.