The Role of Women Empowerment on Environmental Sustainability: A Cross-Country Analysis

The study aims to provide insights into the impact of women's political empowerment on environmental sustainability measured using the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We use a panel dataset of 135 countries (30 developed and 105 developing) from 1990 to 2020. The analyses are conducted separately for developed and developing countries. We use the Women’s Political Empowerment Index (WPE) constructed by the Varieties of Development Project (V-Dem). WPE has three dimensions: women’s civil liberties, women’s participation in civil society, and women’s political participation. The dependent variable, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions, along with control variables such as GDP per capita, population levels, and renewable energy consumption, are derived from the World Development Indicators (WDI) dataset. Using fixed effects (FE) panel data analysis, our findings indicate that, in most cases, higher levels of women’s political empowerment resulted in lower CO2 emissions across both developed and developing countries.