Department of Economics, University of Nottingham, University Park,

Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.

This paper examines the relationship between per capita income and a wide range of environmental indicators using cross-country panel data sets. The manner in which this has been done overcomes several of the weaknesses associated with the estimation of environmental Kuznets curves (EKCs) outlined by Stern et al. (1996).

Results suggest that meaningful EKCs exist only for local air pollutants whilst indicators with a more global, or indirect, impact either increase monotonically with income, or else have predicted turning points at high per capita income levels with large standard errors - unless they have been subjected to a multilateral policy initiative. Two other findings are also made; that concentrations of local pollutants in urban areas peak at a lower per capita income level than total emissions per capita; and that transport generated local air pollutants peak at a higher per capita income level than total emissions per capita. Given these findings, suggestions are made regarding the necessary future direction of environmental policy.