Ascertainment of Ecological Footprint
and Environmental Kuznets in China
Edmund Ntom Udemba
Abstract China’s ecological footprint is considered to be the highest globally.
This couples with the rising concern of climate change, the present study seeks to
investigate the China’s ecological impact with environmental Kuznets curve (EKC).
China’s country specific data of 1979–2018 was employed for this study. Scientific
approaches such as autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bound testing, VECM
granger causality and some diagnostic tests were all employed for effective justification of the findings of this study. Positive relationships at both 1 and 5% significant level were established between ecological footprint and the explanatory variables. Environmental Kuznets curve was confirmed for China. Findings from granger
causality confirmed nexus among the selected variables through both unidirectional
and bidirectional transmission.
Keywords Ecological footprint · EKC · (ARDL)-bound · VECM granger
causality · China
1 Introduction
China’s ecological footprint is toping in the chart of global footprint (Global Footprint
Network). The country’s ecological footprint has dramatically increased for the past
decade and as well grown more than that of United State of America (USA). China
is among the most populated countries of the world. It is on record that China’s
ecological footprint ranked 81st in the globe at 2.5 gha which is considered less
than the global average per capita ecological footprint at 2.7 but greater than the
world average bio-capacity available per person at 1.7 gha. The tragedy of ecological
footprint expansion is the resultant of overshoot which amounts to depletion of
the available resources sustaining human lives (Global Footprint Network). This
promotes activities such as diminishing of forest cover, depletion of fresh water
E. N. Udemba (B)
Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul,
Turkey
e-mail: eudemba@gelisim.edu.tr; eddy.ntom@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. S. Muthu (ed.), Assessment of Ecological Footprints,
Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0096-8_3
79
and Environmental Kuznets in China
Edmund Ntom Udemba
Abstract China’s ecological footprint is considered to be the highest globally.
This couples with the rising concern of climate change, the present study seeks to
investigate the China’s ecological impact with environmental Kuznets curve (EKC).
China’s country specific data of 1979–2018 was employed for this study. Scientific
approaches such as autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bound testing, VECM
granger causality and some diagnostic tests were all employed for effective justification of the findings of this study. Positive relationships at both 1 and 5% significant level were established between ecological footprint and the explanatory variables. Environmental Kuznets curve was confirmed for China. Findings from granger
causality confirmed nexus among the selected variables through both unidirectional
and bidirectional transmission.
Keywords Ecological footprint · EKC · (ARDL)-bound · VECM granger
causality · China
1 Introduction
China’s ecological footprint is toping in the chart of global footprint (Global Footprint
Network). The country’s ecological footprint has dramatically increased for the past
decade and as well grown more than that of United State of America (USA). China
is among the most populated countries of the world. It is on record that China’s
ecological footprint ranked 81st in the globe at 2.5 gha which is considered less
than the global average per capita ecological footprint at 2.7 but greater than the
world average bio-capacity available per person at 1.7 gha. The tragedy of ecological
footprint expansion is the resultant of overshoot which amounts to depletion of
the available resources sustaining human lives (Global Footprint Network). This
promotes activities such as diminishing of forest cover, depletion of fresh water
E. N. Udemba (B)
Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul,
Turkey
e-mail: eudemba@gelisim.edu.tr; eddy.ntom@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. S. Muthu (ed.), Assessment of Ecological Footprints,
Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0096-8_3
79