Although the emissions reduced recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia exhibits extremely weak capacity to reduce CO 2 emission and resistance to climate action has made it a pariah in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) (DW 2020).

In the last five decades, CO 2 emission from Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom-owned petroleum giant is substantially higher than other major petroleum company on earth. Due to the rapid increase in population, strong GDP, and continuous pressure on natural resources, there has been an inherent drive, which has complicated international responsibilities to ensure a safer environment for sustainable development planning. In 2011, the total per capita energy consumption is over 3 times greater than the global average (Saudi Arabia: 6.5 toe/capita, world average: 1.9 toe/capital). Recently, Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a speedy GDP growth alongside a firmly positive balance of trade without public debt (Samargandi 2017). Around 90% of Saudi export total revenues in 2011 is from Fossil fuel (Alshehry and Belloumi 2015). Based on the report of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the economy of Saudi Arabia mainly depends on fossil fuels. In 2012, Saudi Arabia was reported as the leading oil producer globally, holding the second-largest reserves of crude oil, making her the wealthiest country in the Arab world. Therefore, it is imperative to study the relationship between CO 2 emissions, used energy and gross domestic product (GDP) in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is gifted with massive fossil fuel resources, culminating in excess energy consumption and massive emissions of CO 2. Inadequate supply of affordable and reliable modern-day energy is a significant challenge in social and economic development worldwide. For instance, fossil fuels account forвЂ‰~вЂ‰90% (29.4% coal, 23.8% natural gas, and 34.8% oil) of the global primary energy consumption in 2010 (Aydin 2014). Hydrocarbon constitutes the largest part of the worldвЂ™s energy consumption in the past forty years, with 185% increase in consumption between 19 (Aydin et al. There has been a dramatic increase in world energy consumption recently and will yet increase in the future due to economic development and population growth (Aydin 2015 Rosen 2021). Saudi Arabia needs to increase energy infrastructure investments and increase energy efficiency by implementing energy management policies, reducing environmental pollution, and preventing the negative effect on economic growth.

Also, there is a bidirectional causality from GDP to energy used and vice versa in the short-run, meaning that GDP and energy consumption are interdependent. In the long-run, bidirectional causality from income to CO 2 emissions and vice versa and unidirectional causality from the used energy to CO 2 emissions were observed. Granger causality based on vector error correction method reveals unidirectional causality from income to CO 2 emissions, and bidirectional causality from CO 2 emissions to energy consumption and vice versa in the short-run. CO 2 emissions appear to be both energy consumption and income elastic in Saudi Arabia in the long-run equilibrium. When energy consumption is increased by 1%, there will be an increase in CO 2 emissions by 0.592% at constant GDP, and when GDP is increased by 1%, there will be an increase in CO 2 emissions by 0.282% at constant energy used. In the long-run, the models reveal an inverted U-shape relation between CO 2 emissions and GDP, validating Environmental Kuznets curve. The dynamic interrelationship of the variableвЂ™s nexus was tested using the Granger causality and cointegration method in the short-run and long-run. This work explores modelling and multi-step-ahead predictions for energy use, gross domestic product (GDP), and CO 2 emissions in Saudi Arabia using previous data (1980вЂ“2018). Therefore, it is essential to model the KingdomвЂ™s energy consumption to estimate the profile of her future energy consumption. Besides export, the KingdomвЂ™s consumption of this resource showed a significant increase which linearly promoting CO 2 emission increment. The Saudi economy is driven by the energy sector which mainly derived from petroleum-based resources.

Bidirectional causality