Income Growth,Energy Consumption,and Carbon Emissions: The Case of China

The paper examines the long-run relationship among per capita income, energy consumption, and carbon emissions in China during 1953–2008. We employ the Toda—Yamamoto procedure to test the Granger causality in a vector autoregressive (VAR) model with levels. We find strong evidence of bilateral Granger causality running between income and energy consumption and unilateral Granger causality running from carbon emissions to income. We further provide policy suggestions to address the energy and sustainable development dilemma in China. These include diversifying the energy mix and exploiting renewable energy, enhancing energy efficiency, transforming the economic growth pattern, and reducing the reliance on resource- and energy-intensive industries.