| Summary: | The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is
considered as the ‘flagship’ project of China’s Belt and
Road Initiative (BRI) and has been widely acclaimed
by both Chinese and Pakistani officials often terming it
as ‘game-changer’ to overcome Pakistan’s lingering
issues of energy and economic crisis. Within the
framework of CPEC, China is investing more than 56
billion US dollars as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
in various energy and infrastructure projects including
a vast network of railways, highways, economic zones
and gas pipelines. While much has been debated and
written about various projects under CPEC in the
existing academic discourses, vis-à-vis threats to the
biodiversity (Nabi et al., 2017), its potential
implications to environmental hazards (Ali, 2018) and
to overcome energy shortfall of Pakistan (Kugelman,
2017). However, scientific study to reinforce the issues
of environmental pollution, particularly related to
CEPEC coal-based energy projects have been still
lacking.
The pertained literature on CPEC consisted qualitative
studies to inspect and judge different aspects such as
importance of CPEC for both countries and its effects
on geo political of South Asia. Challenges for CPEC in
Pakistan, South Asia and foreign policy between
China-Pakistan), as Nan, (2015) explained that this
project is not only valuable for Pakistan and China, but
it is also beneficial for the global economy by
including several other countries. Furthermore, Li and
Sun, (2015) and Irshad, etal, (2015) reported the
importance of CPEC and it long and short-term
benefits for both countries. Further, Hussain and Khan
(2017) also stated that it will enhance the cooperation
between two countries and advantageous for Chinese,
Middle Eastern and South Asian people (Ali, 2016).
Further, Wolf, (2017) explained the insights, potentials
and challenges concerning CPEC and domestic level
cooperation between China and Pakistan.
In addition, quantitative studies focused to shed a light
on the impact of China Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC) (Such as, impact on gdp, socio-economy,
trade, stock market, energy sector and infrastructure).
CPEC will build rails and roads infrastructure and
infrastructure development may decrease the poverty
and increases the agriculture development in Pakistan
(Ahmed & Mustafa, 2016). Most recent article
examined the impact of CPEC impact on energy
(energy consumption and energy saving potential) in
the prospect of Pakistan (Mirza, Fatima, Ullah, 2019).
A latest study surveyed in Pakistan and their research
results shows that entrepreneur’s attitude and
intentions to China and Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC) development is positive, it means CPEC
project also designing an entrepreneurial environment
(Kanwal et al., 2019).
A large number of studies (Begum, etal., 2015; Ozturk,
and Acaravci, 2010) have discussed various elements
and causes of CO2 emissions. Similarly, many
researches (Khurshid, etal., 2018; Hadi, etal., 2018;
Hussain, 2017; Hussain, 2015) on Pakistan-China
relations in the context of economy, society and
geopolitical point of view. Present study is aimed to
investigate the CPEC development effects i.e. gross
domestic product (gdp), foreign direct investment (fdi),
trade openness (top), energy consumption (enguse) on
environmental pollution (CO2) in Pakistan using
FMOLS and DOLS methods.
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