Examining the driving forces in moving toward a low carbon society: an extended STIRPAT analysis for a fast growing vast economy

Amidst worldwide concern for global warming, this is now a big challenge to move toward low carbon society. Energy efficiency, energy mix and lifestyles are likely to play significant role in this journey. Using an extended STIRPAT model, namely STIRDEFPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on energy demand, energy mix, fossil fuel intensity, population, affluence and technology), this study aims to analyze the environmental impact of affluence and lifestyle changes through decomposition of energy demand, energy mix and fossil fuel intensity in a fast growing economy like India. Data period of this study is 1990–2016. The study employs ridge regression to fit the extended STIRPAT model. Empirical results show that all the impact factors included in the model have significant positive influence on carbon emission. However, the largest contributing factor is affluence having around 24% promoting impact on carbon emission. The positive attitude toward propagation of environmentally sensitive and green choice adaptive behavior along with clean technology and green energy mix is likely to be an effective strategy to restrain adverse impact on the environment.