?Estimation of Environmental Kuznets Curve for Various Indicators? Evidence from Cross-Section Data Analysis

COP?? concluded the?Copenhagen Accord?with take note of all participant countries, but failed to reach a broad agreement that binds all of countries. This reluctant result is partly due to objection of many developing countries, including some Asian countries, which regard strong regulation on global environment as in-terference to their growth and development. This study tries to estimate environ-mental Kuznets curve?EKC? for various indicators based on cross-section data provided as Environmental Performance Index?EPI? developed by Yale and Colombia Universities. The inverted-U shaped EKC suggests that economic de-velopment does not conflict with global environment quality in long-term. The esti-mation results support inverted-U shaped EKC for some EPI individual indicators but fails for others. The existence of inverted-U shaped EKC, however, does not deny efforts to reduce or mitigate environmental burdens at all. Considering situa-tions of Asian income situation and present global environmental issues, it is abso-lutely required to take some reducing or mitigating measures against environmen-tal burdens