The environmental Kuznets curve in the case of Russia

Abstract

This study explores the relationships between carbon emissions and their main determinants such as energy consumption, real income, international trade, level of education and level of urbanization in the Russian Federation, employing data for the period 1991–2016. Support for the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is found in this study, stating that environment pollution decreases in Russia after income achieves a certain threshold. The ARDL bounds test is employed in order to estimate short-run and long-run relationships in the estimated model. Energy consumption, real income, education and urbanization levels are found to be significant determinants of carbon emissions, while trade openness does not have an impact. The Granger causality test indicates two-way relationships between carbon emissions and energy use, real income and education. Only a single one-way causality runs from carbon emission to trade and no causality was found between carbon emissions and level of urbanization.