{"title":"Determining the effectiveness of the forest load capacity factor in assisting decarbonization in India","authors":"Ugur Korkut Pata , Selin Karlilar Pata","doi":"10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103281","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) has increased dramatically due to various human activities, with deforestation playing an important role. Forests act as carbon sinks and have the capacity to absorb CO<sub>2</sub> and other harmful emissions from the atmosphere. In particular, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-15 (Life on Land) addresses the importance of reforestation and forest management. Accordingly, this study analyzes the impact of the forest load capacity factor and renewable energy on CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. For this purpose, the study focuses on India from 1990 to 2021. The empirical results indicate that (i) the EKC hypothesis is valid; (ii) the forest load capacity factor has an inhibitory effect on CO<sub>2</sub> emissions; and (iii) renewable energy consumption has no significant effect on ecological degradation. This study points to the crucial role of forest load capacity for ecological sustainability. Moreover, renewable energy sources do not seem to be a viable option to achieve India's environmental goals. Therefore, the Indian government should focus on improving afforestation and forest conservation policies to improve ecological conditions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12451,"journal":{"name":"Forest Policy and Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Forest Policy and Economics","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934124001357","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased dramatically due to various human activities, with deforestation playing an important role. Forests act as carbon sinks and have the capacity to absorb CO2 and other harmful emissions from the atmosphere. In particular, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-15 (Life on Land) addresses the importance of reforestation and forest management. Accordingly, this study analyzes the impact of the forest load capacity factor and renewable energy on CO2 emissions in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. For this purpose, the study focuses on India from 1990 to 2021. The empirical results indicate that (i) the EKC hypothesis is valid; (ii) the forest load capacity factor has an inhibitory effect on CO2 emissions; and (iii) renewable energy consumption has no significant effect on ecological degradation. This study points to the crucial role of forest load capacity for ecological sustainability. Moreover, renewable energy sources do not seem to be a viable option to achieve India's environmental goals. Therefore, the Indian government should focus on improving afforestation and forest conservation policies to improve ecological conditions.
期刊介绍:
Forest Policy and Economics is a leading scientific journal that publishes peer-reviewed policy and economics research relating to forests, forested landscapes, forest-related industries, and other forest-relevant land uses. It also welcomes contributions from other social sciences and humanities perspectives that make clear theoretical, conceptual and methodological contributions to the existing state-of-the-art literature on forests and related land use systems. These disciplines include, but are not limited to, sociology, anthropology, human geography, history, jurisprudence, planning, development studies, and psychology research on forests. Forest Policy and Economics is global in scope and publishes multiple article types of high scientific standard. Acceptance for publication is subject to a double-blind peer-review process.