Economic Freedom, Education and CO Emissions: A Causality Analysis for EU Member States.

Environmental sustainability is one of three pillars of sustainability. However, a significant worldwide deterioration in the environment has been experienced since the Industrial Revolution, but the efforts to protect the environment date back to the 1970s. In this context, many economic and non-economic factors underlying environmental degradation have been investigated until today, but the influence of economic freedom indicators and education on the environment have been relatively less analyzed and the researchers have mainly focused on the influence of economic and institutional variables on the environment.

Do Environmental Stringency Policies and Human Development Reduce CO Emissions? Evidence from G7 and BRICS Economies.

This study explores the impact of environmental policies and human development on the CO emissions for the period of 1995-2015 in the Group of Seven and BRICS economies in the long run through panel cointegration and causality tests. The causality analysis revealed a bilateral causality between environmental stringency policies and CO emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and a unilateral causality from CO emissions to the environmental stringency policies for Canada, China, and France. On the other hand, the analysis showed a bilateral causality between human development and CO emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and unilateral causality from CO emissions to human development in Brazil, Canada, China, and France.