The role of nuclear energy in the correction of environmental pollution: Evidence from Pakistan

Nasir Mahmood, Zhaohua Wang, Bin Zhang

Nuclear Engineering and Technology · 2019 · 177 citations · 56 references

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TL;DR

Global warming driven by climate change has spurred interest in clean energy, with nuclear power gaining attention, yet its effectiveness in reducing pollution remains unclear. The study examines the relationship among nuclear energy, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions in Pakistan from 1973 to 2017. An autoregressive distributed lag model and vector error‑correction Granger causality analysis were employed to assess the impact of nuclear energy on CO₂ emissions. Results indicate nuclear energy reduces CO₂ emissions and that a bidirectional causal link exists, offering policy guidance for Pakistan.

Abstract

The global warming phenomenon emerges from the issue of climate change, which attracts the attention of intellectuals towards clean energy sources from dirty energy sources. Among clean sources, nuclear energy is getting immense attention among policymakers. However, the role of nuclear energy in pollution emissions reduction has remained inconclusive and demand for further investigation. Therefore, the current study contributes to extend knowledge by investigating the nexus between nuclear energy, economic growth, and CO2 emissions in a developing country context such as Pakistan for the period between 1973 and 2017. The auto-regressive distributive lag model summarizes the nuclear energy has negative effect on environmental pollution as it releases carbon emission in the environment. Moreover, vector error correction Granger causality provides evidence for bidirectional causality between nuclear energy and carbon emissions. These interesting findings provide new insight, and policy guidelines provided based on these results.

References

56