Journal of Economics, Finance and Accounting Studies ISSN: 2709-0809 DOI: 10.32996/jefas Journal Homepage: www.al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/jefas JEFAS AL-KINDI CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Copyright: © 2022 the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Published by Al-Kindi Centre for Research and Development, London, United Kingdom. Page | 231 | RESEARCH ARTICLE The Determinants of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Philippine Setting Arianne Lauren F. Ronario 1 ✉ Jose Mari R. Rosal 2 and Carlos L. Manapat 3 123 UST Faculty of Arts and Letters, Department of Economics, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines Corresponding Author: Arianne Lauren F. Ronario, E-mail: ariannelauren.ronario.ab@ust.edu.ph | ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions with other study variables such as economic growth, energy consumption, population growth, and gross capital formation in the case of the Philippines set during the period 1976 to 2014. This paper employs various econometric techniques: the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, Johansen Cointegration test, and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation regression to prove that there is a relationship between the study variables. The outcome of the unit root test states that all variables are stationary, and cointegration tests prove that there is a long-run relationship among the study variables involved. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation shows that energy consumption, population growth, and gross capital formation have a significant relationship with carbon dioxide emissions while economic growth is insignificant. Energy consumption and gross capital formation show a direct relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, while economic growth and population growth are indirectly related. | KEYWORDS Carbon dioxide emissions; economic growth; energy consumption; population growth; gross capital formation | ARTICLE DOI: 10.32996/jefas.2022.4.2.18 1. Introduction The increase in carbon dioxide emissions is one of the pressing issues being faced throughout history as it brings continuous environmental degradation throughout the years across the whole world. Environmental degradation exists in developed and developing countries, where all nations face severe threats from environmental destruction. Greenhouse gases, precisely the substance of carbon dioxide emissions, are one of the main drivers of climate change due to the continuous exhaustion of natural resources and increasing human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels which may lead to a harmful effect on environmental health, such as the continuous rise of global temperature which may lead to global warming, as these harmful chemical substances are released into the atmosphere. Environmental degradation also causes the vulnerability of every individual to be at risk of experiencing various health complications such as cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other known respiratory diseases (Sun & Zhu, 2019), especially the harmful substances such as carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere may increase the risk of asthma towards children (Sun, Zhou, Huang & Li, 2020). One of the main factors of the continuous increase in carbon dioxide emissions, which are responsible for the continuous worsening environmental degradation, maybe the increasing economic growth, energy consumption, population growth, and gross capital formation. Economic growth, explicitly indicating the gross domestic product, is relevant for every country to sustain. It indicates how many total values of goods and services in a specific country have been produced depending on a period. It may be believed that carbon dioxide emissions continuously increase since sustaining economic growth and productivity is inevitable where economic activity flourishes as individuals continuously consume energy-intensive products such as automobiles and other technological appliances that may be harmful to the environment, which may lead to environmental concerns such as the worsening condition of climate change and global warming (Danish, 2019). It was also mentioned that countries that attained solid economic growth with the help of technical development are vulnerable to environmental problems such as pollution (Xiong, 2020).