“…To consider the trade-off between environmental degradation and economic growth, previous research has tested the EKC hypothesis with the traditional inverted U-shaped in various countries and regions (Bakirtas & Cetin, 2017;Begum et al, 2015;Danish, Zhang, Wang, & Wang, 2017;Dogan & Turkekul, 2016;Pata, 2018;Tang & Tan, 2015), thus suggesting policy implications for nations in pursuit of SDGs. Nevertheless, separate and comprehensive attention to the presence of EKC in ASEAN countries have not been paid adequately enough as this region is an emerging vibrant pole in the multipolar world arena (Al-Mulali, Saboori, & Ozturk, 2015;Al-Mulali, Choong, Low, & Mohammed, 2015;Borhan, Ahmed, & Hitam, 2012;Chandran & Tang, 2013;Katircioğlu, 2014;Lean & Smyth, 2010;Saboori, Sulaiman, & Mohd, 2012;Saboori & Sulaiman, 2013;Zhu, Duan, Guo, & Yu, 2016).…”