Economic Growth and CO2 Emissions in the European Union

This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions in the European Union. A panel data analysis for the period 1981 to 1995 is applied in order to estimate the relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions in ten selected European countries. The analysis shows important disparities between the most industrialised countries and the rest. The results do not seem to support a uniform policy to control emissions; they rather indicate that a reduction in emissions should be achieved by taking into account the specific economic situation and the industrial structure of each EU member state. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001