Inspired by the commitment to address the environmental challenges in Peru under the UN Sustainable Development Goals 13 (Climate Action) and its implications by 2030, therefore, this study investigates the combined role of economic globalization, financial development, and fossil fuel intensity consumption using a combination of dynamic ARDL counterfactual simulation and kernel-based regularized least squares within the context of Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology over the period 1971-2017. This research output confirms the inverted-U-shaped hypothesis between economic growth and carbon emissions. In contrast, the kernel-based regularized least squares confirms the scale effect and fossil curse hypothesis in the relationship between financial development and carbon emission, and heterogeneous effects in economic integration and carbon emission. We further document that financial development, fossil fuel consumption, urban population, affluence (economic growth), and government final consumption expenditure spur environmental pollution while economic integration reduces it. This study recommends Peru to instill environmental justice through regulations and policies restricting inflows into an exploration of environmentally unsustainable projects within Peruvian metropolises or in the Peruvian Amazon. There is a need to revisit finance and investment laws and increase investment in low-carbon infrastructure within Peru.
Keywords: KRLS; Peru; STIRPAT; counterfactual simulation; economic integration and financial development.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.