Environmental Sustainability and Economic Growth in Greenland: Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve

• Published in: Sustainability
• Main Authors: Javier Arnaut, Johanna Lidman
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: economic growth; environmental Kuznets curve; Greenland; Environmental effects of industries and plants; TD194-195; Renewable energy sources; TJ807-830; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031228; https://doaj.org/article/732a291007914ea69520411436cb6d18

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis assumes there is an inverted U-shape relationship between pollution and income per capita, implying an improvement in environmental quality when a growing economy reaches a high level of economic development. This study evaluated empirically the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve in Greenland for the period 1970–2018. Using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the results show evidence of a U-shaped EKC in Greenland instead of the hypothesized inverted U-shape. The findings indicate that Greenland had initially experienced a decoupling transition during an early development stage associated with structural conditions of a small subsistence economy. However, once the country began to expand its industry, the trend began to reverse, creating a positive and significant relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP per capita that is potentially detrimental to the Arctic natural environment.