masood dehdashti

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of political and economic freedom on carbon emissions in OIC member states during 1999-2015.  In the present study, while estimating a general model including 50 member countries, two models were also examined by the degree of political freedom of countries, including non-free and partially free countries.

The Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) method was used for this purpose. To verify the stationary, Breitung, Im, Pesaran, Shin, and Hadri tests have been used. Also, to investigate co-integration, the Pedroni test was applied.

The results showed that the relationship between political freedom and carbon emissions is significant and negative and the relationship between economic freedom and CO2 emissions is significant and positive. The relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions is positive and significant, and due to the negative relationship between economic growth and the environment, the existence of the Kuznets environmental curve in the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was confirmed. It was also found that the effect of energy consumption variables, industrialization index, and population size on carbon dioxide is also positive. In non-free countries, the effect of political freedom and economic freedom on carbon emissions is significant and positive. In relatively free countries, however, the effect of political freedom on carbon dioxide emissions is negative and the effect of economic freedom is insignificant.

According to the results of the present study, increasing political freedoms in OIC member countries reduces CO2 emissions. In fact, this concept shows that pollution is expected to be reduced by providing more opportunities to listen to environmental activists. This result highlights the importance of political freedom. Because despite political freedom and the rule of democratic governments, the rate of accountability is higher and the flow of information is faster. Free press and other forms of information provide citizens with more information on environmental issues. All of this highlights the importance of transparency and public awareness. Because awareness ultimately leads to demand, people who are demanding and aware of environmental issues force governments to protect the environment.