Page 99 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1835 Lili Chen et al.
global development and has a profound impact on the relationship between
people and the environment. In addition, population aging is also considered
to be a major demographic trend of the 21st century. According to the United
Nations standards, an ageing population of over 65 years old and above
accounts for more than 7% of the total population. Globally, the proportion of
people over 65 is increasing rapidly, which will influence the future policies of
governments. Therefore, the impact of aging on carbon emissions policies
cannot be ignored. The growth of import and export trade also have different
effects on the carbon emissions of exporting and importing countries. On the
one hand, exporting countries have obtained income through foreign trade,
and have also gained access to foreign markets and participation in
international transactions, which can optimize production in export-oriented
countries according to environmental preferences attached to foreign
consumer demand. Moreover, trade income can also be partially converted
into environmental governance investment, which is conducive to the
improvement of the exporting country's own environment. On the other hand,
trade openness can lead trade participants to maintain or increase product
attractiveness by relaxing environmental regulations, leading to
environmental degradation.
Economic development is a long process that promises a high standard of
living, but it can also lead to environmental degradation. Grossman and
Krueger (1991) has shown that as the economy grows, the environment will
gradually degrade, but when the economic development reaches a certain
level, the environmental conditions will improve. This inverted U-shaped
relationship is called EKC. Scholars have done a lot of research based on
different countries and different time periods. A large number of literature
studies based on EKC hypothesis are mainly divided into the following
categories: First, there is a linear relationship between carbon emissions and
economic growth (Azomahou et al., 2005). Second, carbon emissions and
economic growth have an inverted U-shaped relationship (Lean et al., 2010;
Al-Mulali et al., 2015). Third, carbon emissions and economic growth are in an
N-type relationship (Shafik, 1994; Friedl and Getzner, 2003). Fourth, there is no
relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth (Richmond and
Kaufmann, 2006). The inconsistency of the research conclusions may be
affected by the bias of the missing variables. Therefore, scholars have
combined the factors such as trade openness, urbanization, and financial
development to study the relationship between carbon emissions and
economic growth (Ozturk and Acaravci, 2013).

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