RESUMEN
The relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution continues to attract significant research interest for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers all over the globe. Theoretically, the environmental benefit of economic growth should be greater than its negative externality with higher level of development. However, from the African perspective, countries with higher economic performances often face several environmental challenges, which raises the doubt whether economic growth helps or constrains environmental quality improvement. Under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, this study re-examined the effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions conditional on the dynamics of urbanization, renewable energy, and good governance across 47 African countries using panel data from 1996 to 2019. We employ panel cointegration tests to establish whether there is a long-run equilibrium relationship among our variables. We also apply pooled mean group ARDL (PMG-ARDL) techniques and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test to determine the long- and short-run effects of economic growth, urbanization, renewable energy consumption, and good governance on CO2 emissions. The results from the PMG estimator validate the EKC hypothesis since a 1% surge in GDP per capita increases emissions by 0.61% in the long run, while a 1% increase in its square decreases emissions by 0.03%. In the short-run, economic growth does not exercise any significant effect on emissions. Furthermore, results indicate a significantly negative and positive long-run effect of renewable energy and governance, respectively. Finally, our causality test shows bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and all the explanatory variables. Henceforth, we provided policy implications based on the study's results.
Asunto(s)
Dióxido de Carbono , Desarrollo Económico , Dióxido de Carbono/análisis , África , Energía Renovable , Contaminación AmbientalRESUMEN
Climate change has occasioned several Earth long-term events, including extreme temperatures. In recent years, Africa was reported as part of the world's regions that experienced extreme temperatures above pre-industrial levels. Despite lower contribution to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and global warming, Africa remains among the world regions that suffer the most from climate change. However, the impact of climatic factors of temperature and emissions on economic production in Africa has not been broadly investigated, specifically among climate regimes. In this study, we attempt for the first time to understand the heterogeneous impacts of emissions and temperature on income in Africa using panel and time-series techniques on datasets spanning the years 1995-2016. At the global level in Africa, our empirical results reveal that a 1% increase in average temperature reduces income by 1.08%, whereas a 1% rise in CO2 emissions spurs income by 0.23%. The emissions effect result implies that environmental policies specifically designed to reduce CO2 emissions in Africa as a whole may significantly impact production in the long run. Also, the result suggests that a shift from optimal temperature levels to extreme patterns deter economic growth. Despite these revelations, our extended analysis based on climate regimes indicates heterogeneous effects across countries. Considering the Paris agreement on climate, this study suggests that policymakers should emphasise country-specific policies than global climatic policies for sustained CO2 emissions reduction in Africa.
Asunto(s)
Dióxido de Carbono , Desarrollo Económico , África , Dióxido de Carbono/análisis , Cambio Climático , Calentamiento GlobalRESUMEN
The nexus between environmental degradation and economic growth continues to generate growing interest from environmental practitioners, industrialists, and researchers. Most existing studies in Africa have investigated the relationship based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory under assumptions of homogeneity and spatial independence. In contrast, we investigate the EKC theory under more realistic possibilities of country heterogeneity and spatial dependence. Accordingly, we make two contributions. First, following estimation based on a sample of 48 African countries, we perform a quadratic regression for each country to account for heterogeneity. Second, we test and control for spatial dependence using the Global Moran's I test and the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) within the Fixed and Random effects on the Spatial-Durbin-Model, respectively. We also estimate the relationship using pooled OLS, Fixed and Random effects, and the generalised methods of moments (GMM). We document three key results: (1) the EKC hypothesis holds for the entire sample of 48 countries, even though the relationship is weak, (2) the relationship is sensitive to factor heterogeneity, with the EKC holding in some countries, while it breaks in others, and (3) there exist significant direct and spillover effects in the Co2-growth nexus across countries. Our findings provide a strong case for increased technological progress in pollution abatement, more abatement intensity, and adoption of cleaner production techniques. Specifically, we urge governments, multilateral organisations, and private investors to increase investments in renewable energy development projects. Given heterogeneity effects, we call for country specific measures which speaks to the Paris agreement.