Primary Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth: Evidence from India

The increasing threat of global warming and climate change has focused attention on the relationship between economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental pollution. A number of studies have examined the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. This line of inquiry largely emerged from the oil shocks of the 1970's, and the impact of the Kyoto Protocol agreement. 1 It should be noted that economic theories do not explicitly state a relationship among energy consumption, CO 2 emissions, and economic growth. An empirical investigation on the 1 The Kyoto Protocol requires that industrialized countries reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gasses by 5.2% of 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. The country-specific targets in the Kyoto Protocol may be difficult for some nations to achieve. Developing countries, including India, have been absolved of any responsibility towards reducing emissions in the first commitment period, that is, 2008-12, of the Kyoto Protocol. relationship among these variables had been one of the most attractive areas of energy economics literature for the last two decades. Recent years have seen a renewed interest in examining the relationship between these variables. This line of research focuses on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) or what is also termed the Carbon Kuznets Curve (CKC) hypothesis. The higher economic growth rates pursued by developing countries is largely obtained through consumption of an increasing quantity of commercial energy, which comes at the cost of ignoring technologies that are more efficient. Thus,