Impact of CO2 Emission on Economic Growth and Environmental Kuznets Curve, India

Abstract

The major constituent of Green House Gases (GHGs) is attributed to carbon dioxide (CO2)
emission that leads to global warming and climate change. Increasing negative consequences of global
warming and climate change had called for more attention and discussion on global environmental issues.
In this context, present paper tried to investigate the growth trend of CO2 emission from agriculture and to
test the hypothesis of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for India over the period of 1971 to 2009.
Growth trend analysis suggests that all the sources of GHGs emission from agriculture were showing
positive growth trend except N2O from rice cultivation. The positive relationship was found between CO2
equivalent GHGs emission from agriculture and agricultural value added (current US$). Growth trend
analysis for India’s GDP (current US$) and agricultural GDP was growing with a compound growth of 6.70
and 4.53 per cent respectively during the study period. There was positive relationship between per capita
GDP (current US $) and CO2 emission. Agriculture can play an important role in mitigation of GHGs, some
agricultural practices can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester carbon in the soil. The
relationship between per capita GDP (current US $) and CO2 does not support the hypothesis of
Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) i.e. inverted U shaped in India context. Economic growth itself cannot
replace multilateral policies that seek to reduce the CO2 emission. Therefore, government should develop
and adopt appropriate policies to reduce the CO2 emission from different sources.