Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic growth, trade openness and manufacturing on CO2 emissions in India. Design/methodology/approach. The study employed autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bounds test approach and uses CO2 emissions, trade, manufacturing and GDP per capita to examine the relationship using an annual time series data from World Development Indicators during 1971 to 2016. Findings. Results depict that there exists a long-run relationship between CO2 emissions and other variables. Trade openness significantly reduces CO2 emissions, whereas manufacturing and GDP have a significant and positive impact on CO2 in the long run. Research limitations/implications. The findings of the study contribute to the body of knowledge by providing new evidence on the relationship between developmental metrics and the environment. These findings are crit...