The Relationship between Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions and GDP per Capita: A Revisit of the Evidence from Turkey

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In this study, the relationship between total energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is measured in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. Based on the data in Turkey between the years of 1960-2015, the relationship is analyzed for long term through ARDL-bounds test. In this context, CO2 emissions, gross domestic product per capita, total energy consumption and some other related variables such as capital, labor, openness and population are considered. In the long-run equilibrium CO2 emissions and energy use appear to be both output elastic where the results indicate that output is a significant determinant of emissions and energy use. In accordance with these results of the inverted U-shaped relationships of both emissions–income and energy consumption–income imply that both environmental damage and energy consumption firstly increase with income, then stabilize, and eventually decline. Various policy recommendations about the estimated income elasticity of carbon emissions and energy consumption are presented with additional analyses of adverse effects. The overall results indicates that EKC is valid, besides, energy conservation policies and controlling CO2 emissions, are likely to have adverse effect on the real output growth of Turkey.