Decoupling trends of emissions across EU regions and the role of environmental policies

The paper combines grid-level data of eight emission types – CO2, N20, CH4, NH3, NOX, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 with sub-national economic to create a 1995–2015 balanced panel for NUTS 2 regions in EU countries. Regions on average show decoupling emissions from output but most the reductions are achieved before 2008 financial crisis. Post 2008, very weak even coupling can be observed. Using OECD’s Environmental Policy Stringency (EPS) Index as an intervention variable, event study analysis shows that strong policies significantly reduce emissions, there is considerable heterogeneity response by regional income levels.