Economic growth, urbanisation and carbon emissions: evidence from selected Asean countries

Climate change is considered as the most severe and urgent environmental issue in this present era. There is a clear consensus that the climate change problem is much related to the rising level of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The link between economic growth, urbanization and carbon emissions was examined extensively in the literature. Fast-paced economic growth will advance urbanization in a country and result in higher energy consumption to meet various needs in an urban economy. This conditions will trigger more carbon emissions and generate more pollution problem. This paper aims to discuss and compare the growth pattern of economic growth, urbanization and carbon emissions between five selected ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam for the period 1990-2018. All these five countries have recorded at least 4% economic growth rate in the year 2018. In the same period, Indonesia has the largest in term of total value added in manufacturing. Similarly, Vietnam has the largest growth of value-added in the same industry. Among all, Indonesia has the largest urban population whilst Malaysia has the highest rate in urbanization and carbon emissions per capita. The upward trend of urban population and carbon emissions per capita in these countries exhibit certain pressures and challenges to the countries’ environmental quality. Therefore, the government in these countries should pay attention to environmental governance to achieve sustainable urbanization while prioritizing economic growt