The Impacts of Environmental Policies on Natural Gas Consumption in Iranian Industrial Sector

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of environmental policies including price and non-price policies on natural gas demand in Iranian industrial sector. For this purpose, considering the dynamic nature of our panel data, we adopted Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method to estimate natural gas consumption for 22 Iranian industries from 2005 to 2015. The results illustrated that the annual average of natural gas consumption has been rising, reaching five times higher than the consumption of other fossil fuels. Among the industries, other non-metallic minerals industry with 8 percent of the total production and more than 25 percent natural gas consumption have been regarded as the most natural gas consumer industry. The results of our GMM model showed that non-price environmental policies are more effective than the price policies on natural gas consumption. Overall, in non-price policies, energy intensity seems more important comparing to CO2 emission reduction. We recommend that governmental energy policies should focus more on energy intensity improvement in Iranian industries through technological enhancement and fuel energy saving regulations.