12 Energy Consumption, CO2 Emission and GDP Per Capita in The United States: An Investigation of the Causal Relationships

Asst. Prof. Hakkı Kutay Bolkol / Asst. Prof. Ece H. Güleryüz / Barış Kılınç

Economic development has been taking place in a fast and uncontrolled way in the industrialized countries due to globalization and complex interconnectedness of economic activities. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that economic growth has also generated negative environmental impacts. Industrialization leads to economic, social and cultural changes in societies and since the 20thcentury it has caused environmental pollution. Today the U.S. is the second largest country in CO2 emission. Recently the U.S. President Donald Trump announced that USA will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and the USA Environmental Protection Agency has taken on a non-serious attitude against climate change. The choice of USA as the country of interest in this paper is motivated by the fact that the U.S. is the largest consumer of energy in the world leaving China, Russia, Japan and India behind despite the situation that the U.S. is a developed country.