The roles of international tourism and renewable energy in environment: New evidence from Asian countries

Northeast and Southeast Asian region is one of the fastest growing regions in CO₂ emissions, real GDP, energy consumption, and international tourism. However, the relationships among emissions, real GDP, energy consumption, and tourism are little known. The purpose of present paper is to explore the linkage among CO₂ emissions, real GDP, non-renewable and renewable energy, and tourism in panel of ten Northeast and Southeast Asian (NSEA-10) countries covering the period of 1995–2014. Environmental Kuznets curves are examined by fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and augmented mean group (AMG) based on individual country and panel data. Moreover, heterogeneous panel non-causality test is employed to analyze the causality among variables based on regional data. The empirical results reject the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in whole samples (NSEA-10), Northeast Asian countries (NEA-4), and Southeast Asian countries (SEA-6). Non-renewable energy is the big source of emissions, while renewable energy can reduce emissions in panel data. The development of tourism may lead to the environmental degeneration. The findings based on heterogeneous causality test are mixed in different regions.