Economic and Social Factors Affecting Environmental Pollution with an Emphasis on Mazut Consumption in Iran

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of economic and social factors on the emission of carbon dioxide, which has been used as a measure of environmental pollution in Iran for the period of 1352-1397. In order to measure the economic and social factors affecting environmental pollution, it is necessary to study the short-term and long-term relationship between fuel oil consumption, urbanization, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in Iran. For this purpose, the autoregression model with extended distribution intervals (ARDL) was used. The results show that the error correction coefficient obtained in this model shows that in each period, 33% of the short-term failure error can be made to achieve a long-term comparison. According to the estimate, the increase in fuel oil consumption, urbanization, and economic growth have a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions both in the short term and in the long term. Also, the long-term results indicate that with an increase of one percent of gross domestic production, fuel oil consumption and urban population increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.849, 0.166, and 1.566 percent, respectively. Therefore, the first step to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the country is to pay attention to the amount of fuel oil consumption, hence policies can be made to use alternative energies such as renewable energies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.