DOI: 10.36347/sjebm.2015.v02i01.012

Pages: 72-79

Foreign trade is considered a major driving force behind China‟s rapid economic growth. However, it is argued that China‟s development is relying excessively on environmental services. In this study, we aim to examine the linkage between foreign trade and carbon emission in China. We base our analysis on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework but we follow a different approach. Our analysis finds that foreign trade exerts a positive partial effect on per capita carbon emission. Our empirical results also support the EKC hypothesis by showing that as per capita income or TFP grows larger both carbon emission and its emission intensity first increase and then decline.