Economy and pollution by CO2 emissions; Kuznets environmental curve in Asia Pacific economies

The economies of the Asia Pacific (APEC) region are among the most dynamic in the world with the highest levels of trade activity and environmental degradation. One way to study trends in the relationship between the economy and pollution is the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). This perspective assumes that, in the long run, higher wealth levels would achieve lower pollution levels. The objective was to analyze whether the behavior of EKC occurs for APEC economies. The method used was an econometric model for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and GDP. The results showed a stationary unit root in the first differences, suggesting that the presence of EKC behavior was explained by a high probability that the GDP coefficient reached an inflection point to become negative and significant. However, when tests were carried out to find the differences between two groups of economies (developed and developing), it was found that the turning point for developing economies had not yet been reached, unlike developing economies.