Financial development and sectoral CO2 emissions in Malaysia

Ibrahim Kabiru Maji, Muzafar Shah Habibullah, Mohd Yusof Saari

The paper examines the impacts of financial development on sectoral carbon emissions (CO2) for environmental quality in Malaysia. Since the financial sector is considered as one of the sectors that will contribute to Malaysian economy to become a developed country by 2020, we utilize a cointegration method to investigate how financial development affects sectoral CO2 emissions. The long-run results reveal that financial development increases CO2 emissions from the transportation and oil and gas sector and reduces CO2 emissions from manufacturing and construction sectors. However, the elasticity of financial development is not significant in explaining CO2 emissions from the agricultural sector. The results for short-run elasticities were also consistent with the long-run results. We conclude that generally, financial development increases CO2 emissions and reduces environmental quality in Malaysia.