Study On Energy Consumption,carbon Emissions,and Agricultural Economic Growth In China From The Perspective Of Environmental Sustainability

China is one of the top 10 countries in producing agricultural products such as rice,wheat,corn,etc.,and has fertile agricultural resources as well as a long history of agricultural production using traditional farming methods.China’s agriculture is the source of income for more than 300 million rural residents,which correspondingly contributes to poverty alleviation,and agricultural production in China has grown at a compound annual rate of 5.4% in real terms over the past two decades.It has increased with the improvement of agricultural technology and introducing of modern farming methods.Although changes in agricultural technologies are boosting production and meeting the food needs of a rapidly growing population,they also result in carbon emissions from agriculture.Modern agriculture not only increases direct energy use through the operation of technologies but also indirect energy use through the production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides,which also cause significant carbon emissions and leave a strong climate change footprint on the environment that brings uneven precipitation patterns,raises the temperature,causes sudden outbreaks of novel pests,and changes the growing cycle of the crops.These reasons are responsible for the decline in agricultural production and agricultural economic growth.Although other industries are major sources of emissions,agriculture also contributes to a great proportion of carbon emissions.As China is the world’s largest agricultural products producer and consumer country,similarly it is also the world’s largest agricultural carbon emitter as compared to other nations.Considering the huge carbon emissions,the Chinese government has announced policies to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 for sustainable economic growth.Therefore,this study is a time-noting study to help the Chinese government achieve environmental sustainability-oriented policies.Initially,we did a theoretical and systematic literature review and found that a sustainable environment along with agricultural economic growth was completely ignored in previous literature.Thus,this thesis constructed four hypotheses(1)the impact of agricultural economic growth,and renewable energy consumption on carbon emissions;(2)carbon emissions,and non-renewable energy consumption effects on agricultural economic growth;(3)carbon emissions and energy consumption exert influence on cereal food production;(4)an impact of bioenergy,cereal food production and carbon emissions to agricultural economic growth,to analyze the nexus of carbon emissions,energy consumption,and agricultural economic growth for environmental sustainability in China.This thesis contributed to ongoing research issues about key determinants influencing agricultural economic growth in fast-developing countries,and fills the important missing research link.Finding energy being the dominant source to contribute carbon emissions motivates this research to investigate which type of energy source(renewable or non-renewable energy)is reliable to use for sustainable agricultural economic growth.Time-series data for a bunch of variables from the two to five decades were collected from different sources on the basis of data availability.Unit-root tests and variable importance in projection were employed to check the stationarity and multicollinearity issues between the variables.Before analyzing the main models,few variables were dropped out because of having nonstationary properties and multicollinearity issues.Then this study employed autoregressive distributed lag(ARDL),novel dynamic ARDL,and vector error correction models to investigate the long-run and short-run nexus between the selected variables.In addition,the cointegration and granger causality tests were analyzed to check whether the cointegration and causality are running from carbon emission to agricultural economic growth or not.In last policies are recommended for a sustainable environment and agricultural economic growth as well as achieving the target of carbon neutrality before2060.The empirical results of this thesis revealed that carbon emissions decreased due to an expansion in renewable energy consumption in the long-and short-run nexus,while in the short-run,agricultural economic growth was increased by the escalation in renewable energy consumption.On the other hand,non-renewable energy and carbon emissions significantly reduce agricultural economic growth.Furthermore,both in the long and short-run,increased area sown and a decrease in non-renewable energy consumption will increase cereal food production.It is fundamental that more cereal production will generate more revenue for the farmers and will contribute to agricultural economic growth owing to solving the problem of food security.In addition,the results acquire that an upsurge in bioenergy consumption causes an increase in agricultural economic growth both in the long and short-run nexus.A shrinkage in fossil fuel consumption and cereal food production caused a lessening in agricultural economic growth with respect to both long-and short-term effects.Overall,a decline in consumption of non-renewable energy can reduce carbon emissions,and increasing the use of renewable energy will both increase agricultural economic growth and achieve environmental sustainability in China.These findings confirm the feedback hypothesis which implies that non-renewable energy is responsible for declining agricultural economic growth and coming up with environmental degradation.Based on the empirical results,new policies and potential elucidations would be implemented in order to not only increase the contribution of agriculture to national GDP but also reduce carbon emissions by opting for modern technologies based on an environment-friendly approach,such as genetically modified high-yield varieties to meet the demand for food security.This thesis gives a conclusive finding at least in the transformation of non-renewable energy use bioenergy need to be taken into account by policymakers for environmental sustainability.