Shifting environmental pollution abroad contributes to lower emissions in democracies

Many studies suggest that democracies have, on average, a better environmental protection record than authoritarian states. But this debate is far from resolved. Hence, we take a closer look at an overlooked factor that may shed new light on the ambiguous claims and findings of the democracy-environment nexus: pollution offshoring. We hypothesize that democracies can improve their record and become “greener” not only through genuinely domestic environmental protection, but also through outsourcing environmental impacts of their consumption to other countries. Analyzing data on greenhouse gas emissions, pollution offshoring, and democracy for more than 160 countries since the 1990s, we report evidence that the offshoring of environmental pollution contributes to the superior environmental record of democracies. The main policy implication is that democracies, <jats:italic>per se</jats:italic>, may not have a better environmental record than autocracies when considering global environmental impacts. This implies that democratic countries, in particular, should re-orient their environmental protection efforts from merely domestic to global environmental consequences of local economic activity.