Innovation For Sustainability: African and European Perspectives

Chapter 3 - Education, Convergence and Carbon Dioxide Growth per Capita

48 CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY This paper examines the existence of convergence and the importance of education on carbon dioxide growth per capita, over the period 1970-2004 for 85 countries. We use panel data and apply GMM-System estimation. This rigorous approach takes into account the observed and unobserved heterogeneityofcountries,andsolvestheendogeneityproblemsassociated with some variables. Our results suggest a divergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions around the world, and that education is not a factor in carbon dioxide emissions growth. Contrary to commonly held beliefs based on intuition, we provide evidence that, in developing countries, there is no convergence, and that education is not a factor in carbon dioxide growth. In developed countries, we find a convergence for per capita carbon dioxide emissions. Education was found to be a factor in pollution growth, although its effect is mitigated by the presence of political institutions. INTRODUCTION I n recent years, the climate change debate has received renewed attention, because climate change associated environmental and socio-economic effects are more evident now than even before. In response, some agreements , such as the Kyoto Protocol, were signed between countries. These agreements establish flexible mechanisms and confirm the commitment of countries to stabilise or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the period 2008-2012. However, these commitments do not include developing countries, such as China or India. Despite this weakness, the Kyoto Protocol remains one of the best instruments of economic policy against pollution at an international level, and should be improved to integrate developing Education, Convergence and Carbon Dioxide Growth per Capita Kinda Somlanare Romuald 49 EDUCATION, CONVERGENCE AND CARBON DIOXIDE GROWTH PER CAPITA countries. Among many options for including these countries, scientists promote the approach of Contraction and Convergence. This method involves a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (contraction) and gradual equalisation of per capita carbon dioxide emissions across countries (convergence). The aim of this approach is to allocate commitments to countries, to reduce air pollution from greenhouse gases. Countries can set sustainable emissions budgets, and share this budget on a per capita basis. This scenario is different from the current protocol, where emissions rights are proportional to historical levels. Emissions convergence can facilitate the participation of developing countries in pollution reduction, through adoption of an allocation scheme based on pollution per capita, without involving a substantial transfer of financial resources from developed countries to developing countries. Thus, the analysis of the convergence of air pollution is important in terms of international political policies. This paper aims to determine the importance of education on air pollution growth, and the existence of convergence. First, based on the available empirical literature on air pollution convergence, we analysed the existence of convergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions over the period 1970-2004 in 85 developing and developed countries. Other authors have analysed the convergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions . For example, Strazicich and List (2003) found a beta convergence in carbon dioxide emissions in a sample of 21 industrialised countries over the period 1960-1997. They explain these results by the fact that these countries are on the downward sloping of environmental Kuznets curves, and that their incomes per capita are lower than incomes per capita at a steady state. Thus, pollution reduction would be lower at the transitional stage than after a steady state has been achieved. Nguyen (2005) examined convergence in carbon dioxide emissions for 100 countries from 1966 to 1996, and concluded that the environmental convergence hypothesis is a case of the glass either being half-full or half-empty. More precisely, countries with high initial CO2 per capita emissions (relatively to sample averages) experienced a decrease in their relative emissions, whereas the relative emissions of low emissions countries remained unchanged during the study period. Stegman (2005) provides weak evidence for convergence in emissions per capita for a set of 97 countries from 1950-1999; and identified weak convergence in countries with very high rates of emissions per capita. Brock and Taylor (2010) examined empirical evidence for the existence of convergence in carbon dioxide emissions per capita for 22 OECD countries from 1960-1998. Based on their research, they developed the green Solow model, by introducing technical progress in the depollution activities sector in the traditional Solow model. This model generates a Kuznets environmental curve, with a balanced growth path of income 50 CHAPTER 3 per capita. Empirically, they found an absence of absolute convergence...