Recep Ulucak

The Nexus Between Biomass – Footprint and Sustainable Development

Abstract Sustainable development is to meet today’s needs without depriving future generation’s ability to meet their needs. Therefore, sustainable development path consists of interconnected and interrelated systems in which intergenerational/overlapping generational welfare is optimized. In recent times, the increasing negative impacts of global warming and/or climate change on environmental sustainability has become an important research topic within relevant literature. The ecological footprint (EF) indicator attracts great attention in the relevant literature to observe and analyze the environmental sustainability. This variable, then, has become one of the most prominent indicators of environmental sustainability throughout theoretical and empirical researches of environmental issues. The regarding literature indicates as well that the renewable resources, e.g., the biomass usage, might have significant impact on environmental sustainability. This study analyzes the nexus between biomass energy, ecological footprint (EF) indicator, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) emissions through (i) panel causality analyses, (ii) panel causality tests considering country-specific causalities, (iii) panel fixed and random effect estimations based on the error corrections, (iv) panel FMOLS and DOLS estimations, and, (v) panel ARDL estimations through long term and short term specifications. The variables of Fuel, Gas, and GDP are also employed within these specifications as control variables to be able to reach efficient, unbiased and consistent estimators. This paper, hence, conducts the estimations first (i) by considering GHG environmental sustainability indicator, and, later, (ii) by employing EF as environmental sustainability indicator within regarding models to observe the possible potential determinants’ impacts on environmental sustainability. The paper, eventually, reveals that (i) the biomass usage diminishes GHG and EF, (ii) The GHG (EF) intensifies EF (GHG). This paper is expected to provide researchers and policy makers with possible energy policies to mitigate the negative impact of global warming in the World for environmental sustainability.

Is there deterministic, stochastic, and/or club convergence in ecological footprint indicator among G20 countries?

Ecological footprint has been widely accepted as an indicator of environmental performance in recent years since it considers carbon dioxide emissions, the collapse of fisheries, the change in land use, and deforestation. This paper investigates, if exists, the convergence in per capita ecological footprint among G20 countries by employing the annual data for the period 1961 to 2014. A bootstrap-based panel KPSS test with structural breaks and club convergence test are carried out. Eventually, this paper is expected to contribute to the literature of natural resources and ecology/environment by (1) monitoring the panel variable of ecological footprint, (2) launching stochastic and deterministic convergence analyses, and (3) estimating the club convergence parameters. In conclusion, the confirmative results in favor of environmental convergence are obtained by exhibiting the stochastic and deterministic convergences and deriving the output of merging clubs.

Analyzing the environmental Kuznets curve for the EU countries: the role of ecological footprint

A great majority of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature use CO2 emissions to proxy for environmental degradation. However, this is an important shortage in application of the EKC concept because environmental degradation cannot be captured by CO2 emissions only. By using a broader proxy, ecological footprint, this study aims to investigate the presence of environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for the EU countries. The annual data from 1980 to 2013 is examined with second generation panel data methodologies which take into account the cross-sectional dependence among countries. The results show that there is U-shaped relationship between the real income and ecological footprint. In addition, non-renewable energy increases the environmental degradation while renewable energy and trade openness decrease the environmental degradation in the EU countries. Policy implications are further discussed.

ÇEVRE - İKTİSAT İLİŞKİSİ VE TÜRKİYE’DE ÇEVRE POLİTİKALARININ ETKİNLİĞİ

Iktisat, kit kaynaklarla sinirsiz ihtiyaclari tatmin etmeye calisarak toplumsal refahi maksimize etmek icin ugras veren bilim olarak tanimlanir. Ihtiyaclar arasinda ise ekonomik maliyeti olanlarin daha cok onem arz ettigi ve uzerinde durulmasi gerektigi yanilgisi yaygindir. Dolayisiyla ekonomik bir maliyeti olmayan veya daha dusuk maliyetli olmasina ragmen canlilar icin hayati oneme sahip olan cevresel degerler ihmal edilmistir. Boylece cevresel degerlerin niteligi bozulmus ozon tabakasinin delinmesi, kuresel isinma, iklim degisikligi gibi tehditler bas gostermistir. Cevre kirliliginin ciddi sorun haline gelmesinde CO2 gazinin rolu cok fazladir. Kirliliginin yol actigi tehditler CO2 emisyonu ile ozdes hale gelmistir. Dolayisiyla bu degiskenin izledigi seyir karar birimlerine izlenecek politikalar acisindan yardimci olacaktir. Bu calismada Turkiye’nin 1960-2006 yillari arasindaki CO2 emisyonlari Lee-Strazicich yapisal kirilmali birim kok testiyle analiz edilmis, Turkiye’de CO2 degiskenine yonelik izlenen politikalarin uzun donemde etkili olmayacagi sonucuna ulasilmistir.