Improving the environmental Kuznets curve for evaluating the relationships between carbon dioxide emissions and economic development

Natural Science Foundation of China 30770411；Chinese Academy of Sciences<p class="FR_field"> In this study we used an improved approach to test <span class="hitHilite">the</span> EKC hypothesis <span class="hitHilite">for</span> carbon dioxide emissions by taking <span class="hitHilite">the</span> first-order derivative of <span class="hitHilite">the</span> traditional quadratic EKC equation. We found <span class="hitHilite">the</span> long-term historical carbon dioxide emissions rarely supported <span class="hitHilite">the</span> EKC theory at various scales (country to globe), but <span class="hitHilite">the</span> short-term (especially <span class="hitHilite">the</span> most recent decades) carbon dioxide emissions widely supported <span class="hitHilite">the</span> EKC hypothesis. We concluded that though <span class="hitHilite">the</span> overall development of a country or region might not follow an EKC pattern, but <span class="hitHilite">the</span> EKC hypothesis might still be justified during different periods of <span class="hitHilite">the</span> economic growth.