Examining the linkages among electricity consumption, income and environmental pollution in Saudi Arabia: from a spectral wavelet analysis to the Granger Causality test. Issue 4 (4th July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Al-Rdaydeh, Mahmoud; Schneider, Nicolas; Matar, Ali
• Is Part Of: International journal of environmental studies. Volume 78:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 634
• Page End: 662
• Publication Date: 2021-07-04
• Subjects: CO2 emissions -- electricity consumption -- wavelet analysis; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; 333.707
• DOI: 10.1080/00207233.2021.1893479
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7233

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the relationship among electricity consumption, per capita GDP, and CO2 emissions for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Trade openness and urbanisation are included within a multivariate approach. Using data covering the 1971–2018 period, the wavelet-coherence analysis is applied to assess the interactions amongst variables. All variables except trade openness appear highly correlated with CO2 emissions. This is further confirmed by our causality testing procedure (i.e. the Johansen and Juselius test for cointegration and the Granger Causality test applied on a Vector Auto-Regressive model) which shows that electricity consumption, per capita income and urbanisation are crucial determinants of CO2 emissions. Accordingly, adequate policy measures are proposed to turn the Saudi power sector towards a sustainable path.