The Environmental Impact of Trade Openness, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Malawi

Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a primary greenhouse gas and has been on an upward trend over the past four decades at global, regional, and country levels. It has significant economic, health, and environmental costs including global warming. In Malawi, CO2 emissions have grown by 45% over the past four decades from 0.7 million tonnes in 1980 to 1.5 million in 2019. During the same period, exports and imports relative to gross domestic product (GDP) declined, and energy consumption and GDP increased. These trends do not explain the empirical relationship between trade, energy consumption, and GDP on one hand, and CO2 emissions on the other hand. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the impact of trade, energy consumption and GDP on CO2 emissions. The study used time series data from 1980 to 2020 and employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to establish the short and long-run relationships. The study established that trade has a positive relationship with CO2 emissions both in the short and long run while GDP has a positive relationship with CO2 emissions the in short run only. The study further established that energy consumption has no significant impact on CO2 emissions. It is recommended that policy should focus on promoting the importation of environmentally friendly technologies rather than limiting the country’s openness to trade. Keywords: autoregressive distributed lag, carbon dioxide, energy consumption, gross domestic product, Malawi, trade openness­­­. Title: The Environmental Impact of Trade Openness, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Malawi Author: Dalitso Laviwa International Journal of Recent Research in Commerce Economics and Management (IJRRCEM) ISSN 2349-7807 Vol. 9, Issue 3, July 2022 - September 2022 Page No: 82-99 Paper Publications Website: www.paperpublications.org Published Date: 31-August-2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7038588 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.paperpublications.org/upload/book/The%20Environmental%20Impact-31082022-8.pdfInternational Journal of Recent Research in Commerce Economics and Management (IJRRCEM), ISSN 2349-7807, Paper Publications, Website: www.paperpublications.or