Regional emissions and climate impact: analysing carbon dioxide and methane effects on temperature and sea levels in Asia

Abstract

Climate change and its impacts are felt worldwide, and with increasing anthropogenic emissions, many international efforts are centred around mitigating emissions and meeting climate targets. The Asian continent has made the most significant contributions to global emissions, with China, India, and Russia generating the largest share of emissions. Given Asia’s vulnerability to climate change, the study addresses the literature gap by examining the regional impact of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and methane (CH4) emissions on mean surface temperature (MST) and the effects of MST on mean sea levels (MSL) through panel regressions focusing on the period from 1993 to 2020, considering 45 countries. The study found that regional CO2 and CH4 emissions had a significant positive impact on MST at a 1% significance level, and MST had a positive impact on MSL at a 5% level of significance. The study has focused on continental sources of anthropogenic emissions and applied econometrics over traditional climate models to enable a more nuanced, granular, region-specific understanding of emission impacts for targeted policy development. It has proposed targeted policy measures to mitigate emissions, highlighting the importance of regional collaboration among Asian countries in achieving emission reduction goals.