The Effect of Energy Consumption in the Agricultural Sector on CO2 Emissions in Malaysia

The agriculture sector is one of the most important sectors and drivers of Malaysia's economic growth. It has become the backbone of the agro-based industry and provided many job opportunities to the community. The use of technology in agriculture affects CO2 emissions through the use of energy sources. Therefore, this study is conducted to explore the effect of energy consumption in the agricultural sector on CO2 emissions in Malaysia. Using annual data from 1981 to 2018 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method, results show that there is a negative relationship between energy consumption in the agricultural sector and CO2 emissions in the long run. However, there is no relationship between energy consumption in the agricultural sector and CO2 emissions in short run. Other than that, population growth and economic growth can affect CO2 emissions in the short and long run. Therefore, the findings indicate that an increase in energy consumption in the agricultural sector can reduce CO2 emissions. This situation is considered to be good for the environment. Therefore, the improvement of the agricultural sector can indirectly improve the environment as CO2 emissions can be reduced.