The Impacts of Energy Consumption by Sector and Foreign Direct Investment on CO₂ Emissions in Malaysia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for inviting me to review this interesting article.

1. The abstract needs more of a ‘hook’ to engage the reader and establish the novelty of the analysis in the scientific literature. An additional final sentence about the significance of these results or repercussions they would have on the community would make the abstract stronger.
2. Clearly state the objective(s) in the last paragraph of the introduction.
3. The applied statistics is interesting. However, no one can control the validity of the results. An error analysis has to be included.
4. I suggest to improve the discussion and the conclusion sections to put in value their results.
5. Please, explain in the discussion the limitations of the work.

Author Response

Dear reviewer. We really appreciate all your comments and we have tried our best to revise all the point given to us.

Please see the attachment.

Thank you.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript provides insight on the relationships between CO2 emissions and a range of parameters related to economic and societal dimensions.

The study focuses on the Malaysian situation over the last decades and uses econometric methodogies.

The references used provide context on the work performed as similar studies are available for other parts of the world, or assess other specific activity sectors.

The title and abstract catch the attention of the reader but fail to represent the actual content of the manuscript.  In fact it is unclear how FDI relates to past CO2 emissions in Malaysia 

The conclusions that are extracted from the equations refer to historic trends and it is difficult to understand its usefulness to define future policy actions to meet carbon neutrality.

Also if no details on how FDI is used or on which grounds it is provided by third parties it is hard to understand if it can result in positive or negative impacts.

The conclusions of the study are backwards looking and no clear indication is provided on how action can be set to lower emissions or decoupling emissions from economic growth.

Figures need to be improved (proper numbering, captions, units in axes, increased font).

Author Response

Dear Reviewer.

We really appreciate each comment given to us and we have tried our best to revise it. Please see the attachment.

Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Accept for publication.