© by PSP Volume 27 ｱ No. 10/2018 pages 6812-6823 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 6812 THE NEXUS OF CO2 EMISSION, POPULATION, AGRICULTURAL AREA SIZE, GDP AND ENERGY USE IN TURKEY Hasan Gokhan Dogan * , Mustafa Kan Kirsehir Ahi Evran University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Agricultural Economics, 40200, Kirsehir Province, Turkey ABSTRACT Greenhouse gas effect is known as the main cause of global warming and climate change. There are many factors that cause greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In this study, the relationship with CO2 emissions of energy use, GDP, agricultural area size and population in Turkey was examined. The re- search has gained a more original character by inves- tigating the effect of agriculture. In the study, time series analyses were used. The series included the years between 1995 and 2016. ADF, JCT, OLS, FMOLS, CCR and GCT tests were conducted. Ac- cording to the results obtained, it was determined that the variables has cointegrated in the long run. Nevertheless, it can be said that both long-term and short-term energy use and population are effective factors on greenhouse gas emission. For this reason, it is important to increase investments in renewable energy sources. Individuals, on the other hand, will be able to make a positive contribution to this pro- cess by directing the applications to the environ- ment, which will reduce environmental pressure in both consumption and daily life cycle. The measures to be taken related to his issue can be considered as a driving factor in some laws of government and in the action plans of the relevant ministries. KEYWORDS: CO2 Emission, Agriculture, GDP, Energy Use, Population, Turkey. INTRODUCTION There are several definitions of the concept of development. However, in general sense, deve-lop- ment is defined as the changes carried out to increase production and national income per capita, to im- prove the value judgements of people in line with the world standards and to change the socio-cultural and economic structure [1]. Development is an ultimate goal of all countries. It refers to the holistic progress of a society including economic, social, environmen- tal and even cultural aspects. All countries try to maximize social benefits by using their own internal dynamics. This is directly related to the level of de- velopment. Social benefit is a balance process taking all internal and external factors other than individu- alism into account. Societies carry out various pro- duction activities while maximizing the benefit. This production phenomenon is maintained despite a cer- tain environmental cost regardless of its organization in the technical or economic aspects. In other words, production and its factors participating in the process owe a lot to the livable world. This debt is an envi- ronmental one and reveals the requirement of con- sidering sustainable development approach in every country [2]. The sustainable development policies provid- ing the formation of global economic and social de- velopment have become one of the priorities of the world in the 21st century. The concept of sustaina- bility is involved in every policy today. The concept RI ｳVXVWDLQDELOLW\ｴ ZDV ILUVW XVHG LQ WKH %UXQWODQG Report drafted by the United Nations World Envi- ronment and Development Commission in 1987. The report mainly involved the sustainable develop- ment goals including poverty eradication, equal dis- tribution of the benefit obtained from natural re- sources, population control and the development of environmental friendly technolo-gies. The report looks for solutions to the existing problems in line with these goals and refers to the concept of sustain- abiOLW\ DV ｳWKH GHYHORSPHQW WKDW PHHWV WKH QHHGV RI the present without compromising the ability of fu- WXUH JHQHUDWLRQV WR PHHW WKHLU RZQ QHHGVｴ >@ The development process that accelerated with the Industrial Revolution created a desire in people to consume more natural resources. In this process, the deterioration in resources that are considered to be unlimited led to the understanding that develop- ment cannot be sustainable without taking environ- ment into consideration. The most important initia- tive of the development process is production the most important input of which is energy. Technolog- ical advances and increasing population brought in SURGXFWLRQ LQFUHDVH ZKLOH WKH ZRUOGｶV GHPDQG LQ HQ ergy is increasing every day. Together with the en- ergy demand that increased after the industrial revo- lution, countries constantly updated their energy pol- icies for both meeting their own consumptions and