A note on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2: A pooled mean group approach

This paper investigates whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for CO2 emissions is satisfied using the panel data of 28 countries by taking nuclear energy into account. Using the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation method, our main results indicate that (1) the impacts of nuclear energy on CO2 emissions are significantly negative, (2) CO2 emissions actually increase monotonically within the sample period in all cases: the full sample, OECD countries, and non-OECD countries, and (3) the growth rate in CO2 emissions with income is decreasing in OECD countries and increasing in non-OECD countries.