Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa
Economic growth at the expense of environmental quality has become an increasingly important policy concern since 2015, with the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris. This study investigated the interdependency betwe...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613142550315008 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Padayachee, Bradley |
| author2 | Mthanti, Thanti |
| author_browse | Mthanti, Thanti Padayachee, Bradley |
| author_facet | Mthanti, Thanti Padayachee, Bradley |
| author_sort | Padayachee, Bradley |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Economic growth at the expense of environmental quality has become an increasingly important policy concern since 2015, with the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris. This study investigated the interdependency between environmental quality and economic growth in South Africa, within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, based on annual emissions and economic growth data from 1970 to 2018. The study examined the short and long run relationships of CO2, NO2, SO2 and PM2.5 emissions with economic growth, respectively, utilising a time-series Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimation method in conjunction with classical unit root and cointegration techniques. The study revealed that CO2, NO2 and PM2.5 has positive and statistically significant long run relationships with economic growth in South Africa. Additionally, CO2 was found to be the only indicator of environmental quality that depicted a negative and significant long run relationship with economic growth squared, thereby revealing a negative parabolic relationship with economic growth in accordance with the Environmental Kuznets hypothesis. Similarly, only CO2 emissions portrayed an EKC relationship with economic growth in the short run, while NO2 and PM2.5 were found to have linear relationships with economic growth. Overall, only CO2 was found to have a valid EKC relationship with economic growth in the long and short run for South Africa. The result reveals that incremental economic growth may result in diminishing CO2 emissions as the country transitions from an industrial to a service-oriented economy. This result is linked to South Africa's reliance on coal for energy, its energy-intensive industrial economy, and the foundational relationship between these factors and economic growth. The study recommends that South Africa explores policies aimed at enhanced emissions monitoring and improved regulatory threshold enforcement. Despite the results, the country should also seek to further diversify its energy sector and explore less carbon intensive alternatives without foregoing energy security. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42582 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:26.417Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| publisherStr | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42582 Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa Padayachee, Bradley Mthanti, Thanti CO2 Environmental Kuznets Curve South Africa Economic growth at the expense of environmental quality has become an increasingly important policy concern since 2015, with the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris. This study investigated the interdependency between environmental quality and economic growth in South Africa, within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, based on annual emissions and economic growth data from 1970 to 2018. The study examined the short and long run relationships of CO2, NO2, SO2 and PM2.5 emissions with economic growth, respectively, utilising a time-series Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimation method in conjunction with classical unit root and cointegration techniques. The study revealed that CO2, NO2 and PM2.5 has positive and statistically significant long run relationships with economic growth in South Africa. Additionally, CO2 was found to be the only indicator of environmental quality that depicted a negative and significant long run relationship with economic growth squared, thereby revealing a negative parabolic relationship with economic growth in accordance with the Environmental Kuznets hypothesis. Similarly, only CO2 emissions portrayed an EKC relationship with economic growth in the short run, while NO2 and PM2.5 were found to have linear relationships with economic growth. Overall, only CO2 was found to have a valid EKC relationship with economic growth in the long and short run for South Africa. The result reveals that incremental economic growth may result in diminishing CO2 emissions as the country transitions from an industrial to a service-oriented economy. This result is linked to South Africa's reliance on coal for energy, its energy-intensive industrial economy, and the foundational relationship between these factors and economic growth. The study recommends that South Africa explores policies aimed at enhanced emissions monitoring and improved regulatory threshold enforcement. Despite the results, the country should also seek to further diversify its energy sector and explore less carbon intensive alternatives without foregoing energy security. 2026-01-16T09:42:10Z 2026-01-16T09:42:10Z 2025 2026-01-15T13:46:28Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MBA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42582 en eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | CO2 Environmental Kuznets Curve South Africa Padayachee, Bradley Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| title_full | Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| title_short | Investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency: an environmental kuznets curve study of South Africa |
| title_sort | investigating environmental quality and economic growth interdependency an environmental kuznets curve study of south africa |
| topic | CO2 Environmental Kuznets Curve South Africa |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42582 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT padayacheebradley investigatingenvironmentalqualityandeconomicgrowthinterdependencyanenvironmentalkuznetscurvestudyofsouthafrica |