LAUSR

The main aim of this studyis to investigate the impacts of population total, grossdomestic product per capita, urbanization rate and energy use on carbon emissions in Nigeria for a period of 1981-2015using autoregressive distributed lag approach to co-integration (ARDL). The empirical resultsrevealed evidence of a long run relationship among the variables. The generalized ridge regression was used to correct the presenceof multicollinearity among the explanatory variablesin the long-run. Resultsshow that population total, gross domestic product per capita, urbanization rate and energy usehave a positive impact on carbon emissions. Energy use and urbanization both contributed significantly to increasing carbon emissions in the longand shortrun respectively. Considering the fact that the factors investigated in this study are of the increasing trend in this nation there is a need to implement policies to curb the increasing rate of carbon emissions in Nigeria.Keywords:Carbon Emission, Population Growth, Gross Domestic Product, Generalized Ridge JEL Classification:C01, C33, O44, O53.