Does environmental policy stringency reduce CO2 emissions? Evidence from high-polluted economies

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 341; p. 130648
• Main Author: Yirong, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 20-03-2022
• Subjects: Environmental stringency policies. CO2 emissions. High-polluted economies; Environmental stringency policies. CO2 emissions. High-polluted economies
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130648

The main objective of this study is to get the asymmetric effects of environmental policy stringency on CO2 emissions in top emitter's economies named China, USA, India, Russia, and Japan by using non-linear panel ARDL approach. The non-linear model infers that an increase in environmental policy stringency improves the environmental quality by reducing CO2 emissions in the long run. While a negative change in environmental policy stringency is also reducing the CO2 emissions in the long run. Indeed the asymmetric effects between positive and negative change in the environmental policy stringency are also confirmed in magnitude only in the long-run, thus the policymakers should consider positive as well as negative changes while devising the rules and regulations related to the environment. The study suggests that the high polluted economies need to revisit green environmental regulations policies.