Impact of clean energy and inclusive development on CO2 emissions in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the impact of clean energy and inclusive development on CO2 emissions using renewable energy and inequality-adjusted human development index as measures of clean energy and inclusive human development respectively. System generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to analyze data for a sample of 42 sub-Saharan countries. The result shows that renewable energy has a significant indirect impact on CO2 emissions. This implies that increasing renewable energy usage will dampen CO2 emissions in the region. On the contrary, the result reveals that inclusive human development has a negative and significant impact on CO2 emissions. This implies that important stakeholder such as the marginalized people are not carried along in the campaign for environmental sustainability. The policy implication of the study is as follows. One, policymakers should incentivize the use of clean energy such as wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal to further reduce CO2 emissions. Two, the contribution of the less-privilege should be encouraged for inclusive environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.