Anthropogenic climate change and economic growth: An anaysis on Turkey

Energy use from fossil fuels, economic growth, industrialisation and increase in population are the main economic driving forces for causing climate change. Among these, there are many studies particularly investigating the relationship between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions which is the main source for antropogenic climate change. The results of these studies suggest varying findings between these two indicators. In this study, with the starting point of "there is a positive relationship between economic growth and antropogenic climate change" as our hypothesis, the existence of the relationship between antropogenic climate change and economic growth together with other selected indicators are econometrically investigated for the Turkish case by using 1960-2007 data sets. The econometric analysis applied for the Turkish economy includes Johansen Co-Integration test and ARDL methodologies. The Johansen Co-Integration Test indicates a long-run relationship between CO2 emissions per capita and income per capita. The results of the empirical findings are consistent with the analytical suggestions of the inverse U shape Environmental Kuznets curve. The ARDL analysis on economic drivers of GHG emission changes also suggests that CO2 emissions per capita in Turkey is positively related with the increases in GDP growth, value added in manufucturing sector, electricity production and with level of export shares in GDP both in the short and long-runs. The relationship between CO2 emissions per capita and agricultural lands, however, is found to be negative for the same period.