Stochastic and club convergence of sectoral CO2 emissions in the European Union

Understanding the evolution of sectoral CO2 emissions of all EU countries in the past decades should be useful for political authorities when designing future environmental policies, as greater efforts must be done both in sectors with higher potential for reduction in order to reach the EU reduction targets. This paper focuses on the process of convergence in sectoral per capita CO2 emissions to ascertain whether the measures taken within the EU to meet its commitments have had the desirable impact. We apply time series techniques to CO2 data for the 28 member countries over the period 1960-2012 to test whether stochastic and club convergence has occurred. We only find evidence of weak club convergence as some EU countries are increasing their emissions whereas others are in a process of controlling them significantly but, at the same time, we observe major differences among the sectors and subsectors considered.