Income Level and Environmental Quality in MENA Countries: Discussing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis

This study investigates the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and real GDP for 12 MENA countries. The results show that in the long-run, energy consumption increases CO2 emissions. More interestingly, real GDP exhibits a non-linear relationship with CO2 emissions in the region as a whole, confirming that environmental degradation occurs below some income threshold. However, the turning point is not the same for all MENA countries, meaning that not all countries need to sacrifice economic growth to decrease their emissions.