Abstract. Environmental pressures in the ASEAN-5 region have intensified alongside accelerated human development and rising carbon emissions driven by industrialization. This study examines the impact of human development, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on CO₂ emissions in ASEAN-5 countries. Using annual panel data from 2000–2019, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach is employed to analyze both short-run and long-run relationships. The results show that, in the long run, human development significantly increases CO₂ emissions, while renewable energy consumption and economic growth contribute to emission reductions. In the short run, human development and renewable energy consumption have no significant effect, whereas economic growth exerts a positive and significant impact on CO₂ emissions. The findings also support the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the ASEAN-5 region. These results underscore the importance of promoting clean energy transitions and strengthening human development policies to achieve sustainable economic growth and carbon emission mitigation.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, human development, renewable energy, economic growth, ASEAN-5.