Environmental Kuznets curve under noncarbohydrate energy Esra Onater-Isberk 1 Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics, Sakarya Caddesi No. 156 Balcova, Izmir 35330, Turkey article info Article history: Received 1 September 2015 Received in revised form 7 March 2016 Accepted 16 June 2016 Keywords: Carbon dioxide emissions Noncarbohydrate energy Environmental Kuznets Curve OECD ARDL abstract This study aims to examine the use of noncarbohydrate energy on carbon emissions under the Envir- onmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in 27 OECD countries. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test results indicate that carbon emissions, gross domestic product per capita (GDP), primary energy consumption per capita and alternative and nuclear (noncarbohydrate) energy consumption are cointegrated in Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Korea Republic, New Zealand and Sweden. Results also show that the estimated long run elasticities of carbon emission with respect to (i) primary energy consumption per capita is positive in all countries, except Chile; (ii) noncarbohydrate energy consumption is negative for Canada, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden. Results also confirm the validity of EKC hypothesis in Denmark, France, Israel and Korea Republic. The absolute values of primary and noncarbohydrate energy consumption elasticities suggest that decreasing primary energy consumption is at least as important as increasing noncarbohydrate energy consumption to achieve carbon mitigation at significant levels. & 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 338 2. Literature review .................................................................................................... 339 3. Data and methodology ............................................................................................... 339 4. Unit root test ....................................................................................................... 340 5. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) co-integration methodology ............................................................ 340 6. Empirical results .................................................................................................... 340 7. Conclusion and policy implications ..................................................................................... 343 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 343 Appendix A. ........................................................................................................... 344 References ............................................................................................................. 346 1. Introduction The world has witnessed a dramatic increase in energy con- sumption over the last four decades due to increasing output demand and supply. Energy sources, especially fossil fuels, have become more important than ever as a result of this growing energy demand, and fossil fuel consumption has increased 85% between 1970 and 2013 [1], reaching 66% of World”s energy consumption in 2014 [2]. The substantial and continuous increase in fossil fuel consumption has emphasized the issue of global warming, caused by a 134% increase in carbon emissions in the last four decades [1]. Along with the rising awareness on environ- mental issues, IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change), UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change) and Kyoto Protocol all confirmed the existence of the global warming phenomenon. Moreover, reversing the increasing rate of carbon emission has become essential and time constraints have been imposed to accomplish these targets for developed countries. Namely, imposed targets aimed to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) to 5.2% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. In 2008, three years after it came into the force, 178 countries ratified Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.06.022 1364-0321/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1 This paper is from a thesis by Esra Onater-Isberk to Izmir University of Eco- nomics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 64 (2016) 338–347