Evaluating the Effect of Oil on Environmental Pollution in OPEC Countries Based on the General Policies of Reforming Production

In addition to the positive effect of oil on resource-rich countries economy, there is oil negative effect in these countries, also. The oil production and extraction through environmental destruction can increase pollution and in this way, it will reduce the quality of people life. In this paper, the effect of oil revenues on environmental pollution in OPEC countries including Iran in the framework of the panel data model during the period 2000-2015 has been studied. The results of the estimation show that there is a significant and positive relationship between oil revenues and carbon dioxide emissions in OPEC countries. This finding indicates that revenues from oil exports in oil-exporting countries including Iran have not been accompanied by environmental improvements. However, general policies of the system in the ground of the country's production pattern reform emphasize moving from traditional production to green-based production. Therefore, it is necessary to decrease the negative effect of oil on environmental quality through investment on economic infrastructure and appropriate technology by oil revenues. Also, according to estimation results, energy consumption generally has a significant effect on carbon dioxide emission, and the Kuznets curve environmental hypothesis is not approved in the studied countries.