Does Qatar Face a Trade-off Between Economic Growth and CO2 Emissions?

Abstract

Driven by the development of the oil and gas sector, Qatar has made remarkable economic achievements over the past few decades. However, Qatar’s high dependence on fossil fuels has resulted in a rapid increase in its CO2 emissions. As such, the country may be facing a trade-off between achieving continued economic growth and carbon emissions reductions. This study empirically analyzes the relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions in Qatar, using annual data of income and CO2 emissions from 1970 to 2018. The analysis was conducted by employing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework and the Decoupling Index (DI) approach. The EKC was evaluated using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares cointegration method. Additionally, a robustness check was conducted by Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) cointegration method to confirm the results attained by FMOLS. The findings support the evidence of an N-shaped relationship and suggest that the country is currently undergoing expanding relative decoupling. Although findings show that Qatar’s per capita emissions have been declining over the last few years, additional measures such as energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy are required to allow cost-effective carbon emission reductions.

Exploring the relationship between economic diversification and energy-related CO2 emissions in a petroleum-producing country

“…The EKC hypothesis was tested in Qatar using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method and data on energy consumption, financial development and trade openness for the period 1980-2011 and found to be invalid (Mrabet and Alsamara, 2017). Another study found evidence of an N-shaped curve (Shannak and Contestabile, 2022), which suggests that Qatar is at a second turning point, wherein CO 2 emissions are continuing to increase concurrently with economic growth. Applying different time series data and analytical methods, four studies demonstrated the validity of the EKC hypothesis in the UAE (Charfeddine and Ben Khediri, 2016;Majumdar and Paris, 2022;Shahbaz et al, 2014;Udemba, 2021).…”

Effective Conditions for Achieving Carbon Unlocking Targets for Transport Infrastructure Development—Joint Analysis Based on PLS-SEM and NCA

“…Secondly, adjustment of investment patterns becomes a key economic factor for carbon decoupling, given the crucial positive role of fixed asset investment in carbon emission growth [11,60]. Global infrastructure investment is at an all-time high, so more and more decisions are now being made that will lock in development patterns for future generations [61].…”

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Industrial Carbon Emission Efficiency and Their Impacts from Digital Economy at Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities

“…Control variables: relevant variables were introduced to control the accuracy of results relating to the impact of the digital economy on industrial carbon emission efficiency. Per capita GDP indicates the level of regional economic development, and economic growth brings carbon emissions [34]; Population size as an engine of economic growth but also causes energy consumption, which brings carbon emissions [35]; Urbanization represents the stage of urban development, and the expansion of the urban scale promotes the expansion of the urban industrial system and also promotes the transformation and upgrading of enterprises [12]. Increased size of industrial enterprises promotes economic development but also brings about environmental pollution, which negatively affects urban economic high-quality development [25].…”