Moderation of competitiveness in determining environmental sustainability: economic growth and transport sector carbon emissions in global perspective

The rising GHG emissions and climate change have resulted in number of catastrophes such as floods, droughts and heat waves. Accordingly, researchers are interested in exploring the nexus between GHG emissions and economic growth. This research study is motivated to explore the moderation of transportation competitiveness for economic growth and carbon emissions of transport sector in global perspective. The annual time series data for study variables are used for time period from 2008 to 2018 for 121 countries. The panel quantile regression (PQR) estimation technique is used for analysis of results. The study results validated inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for quantile group-1 and 2, while U-shaped EKC was validated for quantile group-3 and 4. The moderation of transport competitiveness significantly tends to achieve environmental sustainability for economic growth and carbon emissions of transport sector for quantile group-1 and 2. However, the moderation of transport competitiveness increases carbon emissions of transport sector in quantile group-4. The study results implicated that process of economic growth resulted in expansion of transport sector in quantile group-3 and 4 beyond sustainable level. The various policy recommendations are advocated to improve the quality of transport sector to mitigate carbon emissions.