THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE FOR THE NORTHERN REGION OF BRAZIL BETWEEN 2002 AND 2015

Abstract

The northern region of Brazil has been a center of debate because it concentrates most of the Legal Amazon and in it is occurring a great growth of agricultural activities, forestry, mineral, industrial and other urban activities. This expansion has generated several impacts and one of them is the deterioration of the environment. In this context, the present study intends to model an Environmental Kuznets Curve for the northern region of Brazil from 2002 to 2015. For this purpose, data were collected on GDP per capita - proxy for economic growth - in IBGE and SIDRA. And the annual data of the CO2 emission - proxy of the environmental degradation - for the seven states of the northern region were obtained through SEEG. For the analysis of the results will be used the panel data method. It is verified that Rondônia and Acre have the greatest variability of CO2 emission in the years studied and that Roraima, Pará, Amapá and Tocantins maintained a small variability between the years. These results are also similar to those found in GDP per capita. On the EKC format for the Northern region of Brazil, it is concluded that it is presented in the form of a non-inverted U, as proposed in the theory.

Keywords

• economic growth
• ambiental degradation
• environmental kuznets curve