Nexus Between Life Expectancy, Education, Governance, and Carbon Emissions: Contextual Evidence from Carbon Neutrality Dream of the USA

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between energy use, life expectancy, and governance related factors on the environmental quality of the USA. In this regard, the authors discuss the carbon neutrality target and sustainable development goals of the USA. For empirical analysis, the authors employ the US data for the period of 1996 to 2019. Using the Zivot-Andrews structural break unit root test, linear ARDL, and dynamic simulated ARDL, this study obtained the empirical results for diagnostic examination and long-run coefficients. The empirical findings explained how the education, life expectancy, and energy use induce the carbon emissions. Whereas, the instruments of governance have heterogenous impact on the environmental quality of the country. Based on the detailed empirical findings, the study draws the conclusions about the affirmative contributions to carbon emissions. The current research eventually suggests some energy related findings and implications to further reduce the environmental issues and to achieve neutrality targets of the USA.