Impacts of Urbanization on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions: A Comparison of Three Theories

Urbanization is a feature of economic and social modernization. It is not only a process of transferring labor from rural urban areas but it is also a process of structural transformation of the into economy. Expansion of urban populations and proliferation of cities lead to increased energy consumption which is then translated into CO2 emissio. This article aims to study the impacts of urbanization on energy consumption and CO2 emissions in oil-exporting and non-oil-exporting countries of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) based on the three theories of ecological modernization، urban environmental transition، and compact city theories. Running a model of Stochastic Impacts by regression on Population، Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) and using a balanced panel dataset of 18 countries for the period of 1990-2007، the results indicate that the effects of urbanization growth on energy consumption and on the rate of CO2 emissions vary across the two groups of countries. That is، the impact of urbanization on energy use and CO2 emissions in oil-exporting countries is greater than that for non-oil-exporting countries. This result confirms the theories of urban environmental transition and ecological modernization. The positive relation between the rate of urbanization and CO2 emissions confirms the ecological modernization theory، while، the positive relation between the rate of growth of urbanization and of energy consumption confirms the urban environmental transition theory.