EKC test and decoupling analysis of carbon emissions in countries along the “One Belt and One Road”

“One Belt and One Road”(OBOR) is a significant initiative proposed by China that shall promote the sustainable development in the countries of the region. One static panel model of Environment Kuznets Curve with cubic term was constructed, and the data of per capita energy consumption, per capita carbon dioxide emissions and real GDP per capita in 2006, 2009, and 2014 in OBOR countries were used to perform EKC test. The results of EKC test showed that the countries were in the phase of the per capita energy consumption decreasing with the increase of per capita GDP and while per capita carbon emissions increasing with the increase of per capita GDP. Meanwhile, the decoupling of per capita carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth in OBOR countries was analyzed. It showed that a transformation from negative dcoupling to decoupling had been experienced in OBOR countries overall. Besides, the current average level of the countries is at the weak decoupling phase. Some solutions such as optimizing structure of energy consumption, strengthening in-depth cooperation on environmental protection and advancing energy-saving and environmental protection industries were presented, to promote the environmental friendly and low-carbon and sustainable development in OBOR countries.