A Study on OPEC Countries: Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Phenomenon

Human welfare can decrease as a result of a polluted environment. This study aims to examine the relevance of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in OPEC member countries; besides that, this study also wants to see the effect of GDP per capita and fossil energy consumption on carbon dioxide gas emissions in OPEC countries. Method: this research is included in the descriptive quantitative method using the panel data regression method. The data used in the 2005-2020 period comes from the World Bank and Our World. Namely the GDP per capita variable, the carbon dioxide emission variable and fossil energy consumption. The results obtained from this study are that the hypothesis in EKC theory is relevant or occurs in OPEC member countries. In addition, per capita GDP and fossil energy consumption also positively affected OPEC member countries for the 2005-2020 period. It means that an increase in the economy will cause environmental damage by increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide gas emissions due to the use of fossil energy. However, at some point, a high economy will reduce environmental damage due to an economic orientation that focuses on the environment so that it uses environmentally friendly energy.