An empirical analysis on climate change in the perspective of carrying capacity

Today, the climate change and the global warming problem that has emerged as a result of this increase the interest in explaining the factors that cause environmental degradation. While climate change is a great challenge for all economies, it is also an important issue especially for BRICS countries, which have experienced rapid growth in recent years and have increased environmental degradation as a result of this growth. In this context, a special field has emerged recently that examines the relationship between load carrying capacity and environmental pollution. This study aims to examine the effects of economic growth, renewable energy and fossil energy use on the load capacity factor in BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) between 1995-2019. Therefore, the current study uses a more comprehensive environmental quality measure known as the load capacity factor (LCF), which covers both the demand and supply sides of the environment, to evaluate the effects of economic growth and renewable and non-renewable energy on environmental quality in BRICS countries. In addition, the study addresses the periodic relationship between load carrying capacity and economic growth. According to the findings, in these countries, the Environmental Kuznets Hypothesis is valid, and there is a positive relationship between renewable energy use and load capacity factor, while fossil energy use reduces load carrying capacity. However, according to other findings, there is an "N"-directional relationship between load carrying capacity and income. Keywords: Load Carrying Capacity, Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, BRICS Countries