Title: Energy consumption, income and carbon emissions in the Caribbean community

Authors: Ermanno Affuso; Alex Sharland

Addresses: Department of Economics, Finance and Real Estate, Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA ' Department of Economics, Finance and Real Estate, Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA

Abstract: This original research uses a panel vector autoregressive model to study the relationship between energy consumption, carbon emissions and the macroeconomic dynamics of 14 economies between 1960 and 2017; all full members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The model is calibrated using economic and environmental public data from the World Development Indicators repository, the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and the FRED repository of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. The study finds evidence of (i) positive unidirectional causality from energy consumption to economic growth, (ii) positive bidirectional causality between energy consumption and growth in carbon emissions and (iii) negative bidirectional causality between economic growth and carbon emission growth. Implications are discussed.

Keywords: energy economics; development economics; macroeconomic dynamics; Caribbean; panel data.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.2024.140768

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 2024 Vol.46 No.5, pp.407 - 418

Received: 11 Jan 2022
Accepted: 21 Oct 2022
Published online: 02 Sep 2024 *

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