RESEARCH ARTICLE A wavelet coherence analysis: nexus between urbanization and environmental sustainability Dervis Kirikkaleli 1 & James Karmoh Sowah Jr 2 Received: 21 April 2020 /Accepted: 13 May 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The present study aims to explore the co-movement between urbanization and environmental sustainability for the period 1950 to 2014 using the wavelet coherence technique within the global framework. The wavelet coherence technique allows us to investigate both the long-run and short-term causal relationships between urbanization and environmental sustainability within the global framework. The findings reveal that (i) wavelet correlation from the global perspectives indicates a significant wavelet relationship between urbanization and environmental sustainability for medium- and long-term horizons; however, the correla- tions are not significant for the short-term horizons; (ii) significant vulnerabilities in urbanization and environmental sustainabil- ity are observed at different periods and different frequency levels; (iii) urbanization has reliable power for explaining environ- mental sustainability at different periods between 1970 and 2000. Based on our study, we suggest that global urban planners and policymakers should support modern environment-friendly technologies and renewable energies to control global CO 2 emissions and pollutions created by industrialization; policy action to fight climate change is as well recommended as evidence supports to compact city theory. Keywords Urbanization . Environment . Environmental sustainability . Wavelet coherence JEL classification F64 . Q53 . Q65 . C32 Introduction From the historical perspectives, humans across the world lived in rural small towns, though, in recent decades, this has shifted dramatically. The ongoing debates on urbanization and environmental sustainability are trending since the era of classical economists, whether urbanization is fundamental detrimental to environmental quality; however, the environmental sustainability, attracting the researcher and got importance for the last few decades. It has been widely documented that a contemporary economic activity in the ur- ban areas account for the largest significant portion of migra- tion and urbanization together drives global energy consump- tion, CO 2 emissions upwards, and environmental quality downwards if the current trend continues over time (Apergis and Li 2016). Of particular concern is the role of cities and urbanization process in the shifting population from rural set- tlements (Weber and Sciubba 2019), specifically, in relevance to declining urban densities, land expansion, and natural pop- ulation growth in urban areas. Moreover, the urban energy use of fossil fuels leading to global warming has also raised seri- ous concerns about environmental sustainability (Dhakal 2009). Study has noted that continue urbanization has been identified as one of the most potential global threats to human- kind in the twenty-first century (Meyfroidt et al. 2018). Most importantly, literature recently started to closely mon- itor the level of urbanization, given that we are facing not only the urban explosion that needs to be restrained but also the relevant residential consumption and consumption structures Responsible editor: Nicholas Apergis * Dervis Kirikkaleli kirikkaleli@eul.edu.tr James Karmoh Sowah, Jr 184595@eul.edu.tr 1 Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, European University of Lefke, Lefke, Northern Cyprus, TR-10 Mersin, Turkey 2 Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, European University of Lefke, Lefke, Northern Cyprus, TR-10 Mersin, Turkey Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09305-y