CO2 emissions–economic growth nexus: Validity of EKC in oil‐exporting and oil‐importing countries

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve and the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, per capita GDP, fossil fuel consumption, oil prices and foreign direct investment in advanced oil‐importing and oil‐exporting countries from 1970 to 2020. The researchers consider these nations for their dependency on oil resources and their different economic characteristics. The Westerlund (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2007, 69, 709) co‐integration test shows that the studied variables are co‐integrated in the long run in both panels of the countries. The pooled mean group‐autoregressive distributed lag (PMG‐ARDL) model established by Pesaran et al. (Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999, 94, 621), which assesses the short‐ and long‐run nexus between the variables of interest, detects statistically significant associations, providing evidence to support the hypothesis of EKC in both groups. Furthermore, foreign direct investment and fossil fuel consumption have long‐term positive effects on CO2 emissions. The main difference between both groups of countries is that oil price has a positive effect on CO2 emissions in oil‐exporting countries, while it has a negative effect on environmental degradation in oil‐importing countries. The study suggests increasing investment in renewable energy infrastructure by encouraging research and development, providing subsidies and tax incentives for renewable energy companies and promoting large‐scale renewable energy projects as they contribute to environmental quality.