The nexus between CO2 intensity of GDP and environmental degradation in South European countries

This paper investigates whether carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) matters for environmental deregulations in Southern European countries over the period of 1990–2018 while controlling economic growth, globalization, and energy consumption. The present study uses the second generation panel based techniques, namely cross-sectional dependency test, cross-sectional unit-root test, Westerlund cointegration test, augmented mean group and common correlated effects mean group estimators, and Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality test to measure the effect of CO2 intensity of GDP, economic growth, globalization, and energy consumption on environmental degradation. The empirical finding of the present study reveals that the CO2 intensity of GDP is an important factor in determining environmental degradation in South European countries, as the outcomes show that a 1% boost in CO2 intensity of GDP is causing a 1.7728% increase in CO2 emissions. Moreover, a 1% increase in economic growth caused a 0.2568% boost in CO2 emissions. The result is crucial for policy decision-making and can perhaps be applied to take decisive policy actions to mitigate environmental issues.