Link among energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, economic growth, population, poverty, and forest area Evidence from ASEAN country

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among energy consumption (EC), carbon dioxide emission, economic growth, foreign direct investment, population, poverty, and income of four Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, namely, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines. Design/methodology/approach - An econometric analysis was used to achieve the goal of this study taking the period of 1995-2014. Findings - The results of the study motivated the researcher to recommend that four ASEAN countries, namely, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines should increase their energy efficiency, increase the share of green energy from their total energy use, and increase energy conservation in order to reduce the unnecessary wastage of energy. Originality/value - The findings validate that economic growth, population, and income have positive and statistically significant impacts on EC, while carbon dioxide emission, foreign direct investment and poverty have negative impacts on EC for Malaysia. Economic growth, income and poverty have positive and statistically significant impacts on EC, while carbon dioxide emission, foreign direct investment and population have negative impacts on EC for Singapore. Carbon dioxide emission and foreign direct investment have positive and statistically significant impacts on EC, while economic growth, population, poverty and income have negative impacts on EC for the Philippines. Finally, economic growth, carbon dioxide emission and income have positive and statistically significant impacts on EC, while foreign direct investment, population and poverty have negative impacts on EC for Malaysia.