A STIRPAT-based investigation on the role of economic growth, urbanization, and energy consumption in shaping a sustainable environment in the Mediterranean region

Abstract

The Mediterranean region is highly vulnerable to undesired consequences of global warming triggered by industrialization, urbanization, and mostly fossil energy consumption. However, the region has also great renewable energy generation potential such as solar and wind, which enables countries in the region to considerably mitigate CO2 emissions, the main driver of global warming. Developing countries around the world have less impact on carbon emissions than the developed Global North. Therefore, developing countries in the Mediterranean region are affected by the carbon burden of the first industrialized and developed European countries. This study investigates the role of economic growth, fossil and renewable energy consumption, and urbanization of developing Mediterranean countries in CO2 emissions by using annual data covering 1995–2016 period. To this end, it follows a STIRPAT model including gross domestic product per capita, urbanization, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption. Considering cross correlation among countries, panel data methodologies are employed to estimate how carbon emissions respond to increase in gross domestic product, urbanization, and disaggregated energy consumption. Empirical results reveal that gross domestic product and fossil energy increase CO2 emissions; urbanization and renewable energy decrease CO2 emissions. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.