Ozone-Depleting Substances, Economic Growth, and Energy Consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean : An Analysis Applying a Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR)

After the Montreal Protocol in 1989, countries agreed to reduce their ozone-depleting substances (ODS) emissions to improve environmental conditions by reducing UV radiation from our planet's surface. The policies to control ODS have influenced how countries' industries produce, ergo affecting their energy consumption. This study explores the causal relationship between economic growth, energy consumption, and ODS emissions. Retrieving data from Latin America and the Caribbean from 1998 to 2018, a panel VAR is built and analyzed using GMM robust estimates. The main results show a bidirectional causality between GDP and energy consumption, a unidirectional causality from GDP to ODS emissions, and an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for ODS emissions. Policies and actionable campaigns are discussed