An empirical research on trade liberalization and CO2 emissions in China

Abstract

This paper studies this relationship between free trade and carbon dioxide emissions by utilizing the time series data collected from the year 1981 to 2009. The study shows: there's a long-term equilibrium relationship between trade liberalization and carbon dioxide emissions in China; a unidirectional causality exists from Foreign Trade Dependency to carbon dioxide emissions, while the causality between FDI Dependency and carbon dioxide emissions is bidirectional.