Modeling and forecasting carbon dioxide emission in Pakistan using a hybrid combination of regression and time series models

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions continue to rise globally despite efforts to combat climate change. Energy industry emissions are a pressing global issue, causing devastating impacts. Hence, it is vital to accurately and efficiently forecast CO₂ emissions. Thus, this study comprehensively analyzes forecasting CO₂ emissions by comparing various hybrid combinations of regression and time series methods to explore the CO₂ emissions in Pakistan. First, divide the yearly time series of CO₂ emissions into the long-run curve trend series and the residual subseries. The long-run curve trend subseries is modeled using parametric and nonparametric regression methods, while various standard time series models are used to forecast the residual subseries. However, the forecasts of each subseries will be combined to obtain the final forecast of CO₂ emissions. This work used four different accuracy mean errors, a statistical test, and a graphical analysis as performance measures to evaluate the proposed hybrid forecasting technique. The findings confirmed that the proposed hybrid combination forecasting technique is highly accurate and efficient in forecasting CO₂ emissions. Likewise, according to the proposed final optimal hybrid combination forecasting model, Pakistan's per capita CO₂ emissions will be 1.130215 metric tons in 2030. Pakistan's escalating emission trend signals that creative solutions must be implemented to curb it. Thus, the government must price carbon footprints, regulate electricity from zero-carbon sources, reduce population, encourage afforestation in densely populated areas, adopt clean technology, and fund research.