The nexus between access to electricity and CO2 damage in Asian Countries: The evidence from quantile regression models

Energy poverty and environmental degradation are two main important issues in the literature of energy and environmental degradation. Energy poverty might affect adversely the health, productivity the environment. In this study, the effects of energy access on the environment are examined. Although there exist some similar studies in the related literature, our study differently (a) uses CO2 damage data, (b) performs parameter estimations corresponding to different quantiles instead of fixed-parameter estimations. This paper hence aims at analyzing the impacts of access to electricity on CO2 damage in Asian countries through panel quantile regression estimations by employing the panel data for 36 Asian countries for the period 1997-2017. CO2 damage is the cost of damage caused by CO2 emissions stemming from fossil fuel use and the manufacture of cement. While the main interest was to investigate the influence of access to electricity on CO2 damage, the variables of renewable energy and agricultural activities were also employed as control variables in the quantile estimations. The findings reveal that (i) Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis holds in panel data which in turn implies that as economies develop, the CO2 damage will decrease, (ii) as access to electricity increases, the CO2 damage will decrease as well, (iii) the renewable energy use also lowers the CO2 damage and (iv) agricultural activities on the other hand increase the CO2 damage in panel data. Finally, this paper suggests that the authorities increase access to electricity to diminish indoor and outdoor pollution. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.