Department of Banking and Financial Management, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece.
Business School, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Feb;30(6):14680-14692. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-23185-4. Epub 2022 Sep 26.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from developed to developing countries may increase carbon emissions in developing countries as developing countries are seen as pollution havens due to their lenient environmental regulations. On the other hand, FDI flows from the developed world may improve management practices and advanced technologies in developing countries, and an increase in FDI flows reduces carbon emissions. Most of the existing studies examine the relationship between FDI flows and carbon emissions by using aggregate FDI flows; however, this paper contributes to the literature by analyzing the impact of FDI flows on carbon emissions in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) between 1993 and 2012 using bilateral FDI flows from eleven OECD countries. According to our empirical results, from which OECD country FDI flows to BRICS countries matters for carbon emissions in BRICS countries. Our results confirm that FDI flows to BRICS countries from Denmark and the UK increase carbon emissions in BRICS countries, confirming the pollution haven hypothesis. On the other hand, FDI that flows from France, Germany, and Italy reduced carbon emissions in the BRICS countries, confirming the pollution halo effect. FDI flows from Austria, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland have no significant impact on carbon emissions in BRICS countries. The BRICS countries should promote clean FDI flows by reducing environmental damages, and investing countries should be rated based on their environmental damage in the host countries.
外国直接投资（FDI）从发达国家流向发展中国家可能会增加发展中国家的碳排放，因为发展中国家因其宽松的环境法规而被视为污染避难所。另一方面，FDI 从发达国家流入可能会改善发展中国家的管理实践和先进技术，而 FDI 流入的增加则会减少碳排放。大多数现有研究都是通过使用总 FDI 流量来检验 FDI 流量与碳排放之间的关系；然而，本文通过分析 1993 年至 2012 年间来自 11 个经合组织国家的双边 FDI 流量，对 FDI 流量对金砖国家（巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非）碳排放的影响做出了贡献。根据我们的实证结果，从经合组织国家流入金砖国家的 FDI 流量对金砖国家的碳排放很重要。我们的结果证实，丹麦和英国向金砖国家的 FDI 流入增加了金砖国家的碳排放，证实了污染避难所假说。另一方面，法国、德国和意大利的 FDI 流入减少了金砖国家的碳排放，证实了污染光环效应。奥地利、芬兰、日本、荷兰、葡萄牙和瑞士的 FDI 流入对金砖国家的碳排放没有显著影响。金砖国家应通过减少环境损害来促进清洁 FDI 流动，投资国应根据其在东道国的环境损害进行评级。
