Impact of Coal Consumption on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Iran

Industrialization leads to emission of carbon dioxide from extensive use of fossil fuels. This study investigates the dynamic relationship between economic growth, trade freedom, coal consumption and carbon dioxide emission in Iran. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is designed to study the short term and long term relationship. After evaluating the model for unit root test, a logistic regression analysis was run on the basic of 1986-2012 data for the economy of Iran. Our findings indicate the existence of a significant correlation between economic growth, trade freedom and coal consumption with carbon dioxide emission. Thus the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve are confirmed both in the short-run and long-run. Panning for coal consumption reduction can be emphasized as a policy tool for emission reduction.