Does The Steady Economic Progression Along With An Upsurge In FDI End Up Emanating More Methane Gas In The Air? A Study Of The Economic Causes Of Air Contamination From A Developing Country

Abstract

Economic development has historically led to damage to the climate and the eco-system in the form of dangerous emissions that include carbon dioxide, methane gas and nitrous oxide among others. This study focuses on the influence of economic progression, foreign investment and crude oil price on methane emissions in the context of Pakistan. Annual figures were taken for the aforementioned variables from 1990 to 2021 and the data was analyzed through the ARDL method to find a long-run association among the time series independent variables with methane emissions. It was found that the lagged value of the first difference in oil price and foreign investment had a significant effect on methane emissions. The proxy used for measuring economic growth, i.e., GDP, was found to have no long-term impact on methane emissions, however. The Granger Causality test also suggested a positive and significant influence of oil price and foreign investment on methane emissions and an insignificant association between GDP and the dependent variable.