Leal Patrícia Hipólito, Marques António Cardoso
University of Beira Interior, Management and Economics Department, Portugal.
NECE-UBI, University of Beira Interior, Portugal.
Heliyon. 2022 Nov 11;8(11):e11521. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11521. eCollection 2022 Nov.
Environmental changes based on factors like urbanization, population, economic growth, increase in energy consumption, and agricultural intensification are never far from the top of any agenda. The topics of environmental degradation and climate change cannot be confined to a single country or region but need to be addressed on a global scale. If the focus is on the relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth, then one hypothesis that is comprehensively used as an empirically model is the widely known Environmental Kuznets Curve. A substantial amount of research has been published about the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and this present study provides a detailed and extensive literature review of more than 200 articles from 1998 to 2022 to explain and assess its evolution. This literature review provides in detail the Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship under analysis, the additional variables included, the type of analysis and methods performed, the relationships obtained, and if the turning point is calculated. Furthermore, this comprehensive literature points out critical issues and gaps in the Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis. It is important to note that there are components that are not considered in the Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis. The Environmental Kuznets Curve only focuses on production and overlooks the impact of the consumption of imported goods on the environment. Consequently, environmental improvements from technological progress will be offset, and economic growth will result in more environmental degradation. This goes against the change in consumer behaviour which occurs with a rise in income, which is one basic assumption of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The relocation of pollutant industries and consequent relocation of emissions could distort the emissions trajectory over the economic growth path and is also not considered in the Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis. On the other hand, the growth path traced by the inverted U-shaped is not efficient, and the environmental damage provoked in the first phases of the EKC might not be repairable. Therefore, technological progress, climate finance, and energy transition could improve the Environmental Kuznets Curve assessment.
基于城市化、人口、经济增长、能源消耗增加以及农业集约化等因素的环境变化始终是任何议程的首要议题。环境退化和气候变化问题不能局限于单个国家或地区，而需要在全球范围内加以解决。如果关注的是环境退化与经济增长之间的关系，那么一个被广泛用作实证模型的假设就是广为人知的环境库兹涅茨曲线。关于环境库兹涅茨曲线已经发表了大量研究，本研究对1998年至2022年的200多篇文章进行了详细而广泛的文献综述，以解释和评估其演变。这篇文献综述详细介绍了所分析的环境库兹涅茨曲线关系、纳入的其他变量、分析类型和执行的方法、得到的关系以及是否计算了转折点。此外，这篇全面的文献指出了环境库兹涅茨曲线分析中的关键问题和差距。需要注意的是，环境库兹涅茨曲线分析中存在一些未考虑的因素。环境库兹涅茨曲线仅关注生产，而忽视了进口商品消费对环境的影响。因此，技术进步带来的环境改善将被抵消，经济增长将导致更多的环境退化。这与环境库兹涅茨曲线的一个基本假设即随着收入增加消费者行为的变化背道而驰。污染产业的转移以及随之而来的排放转移可能会扭曲经济增长路径上的排放轨迹，这在环境库兹涅茨曲线分析中也未被考虑。另一方面，倒U形所描绘的增长路径效率不高，环境库兹涅茨曲线第一阶段所引发的环境破坏可能无法修复。因此，技术进步、气候融资和能源转型可以改善对环境库兹涅茨曲线的评估。
