Investigating the impact of air pollution in selected African developing countries.

Abstract

Air pollution is a major challenge faced by most countries due to the continuous quest of industrialization leading to a high pollution, which Africa is not an exception. Nowadays countries are trying to regulate their carbon emission by transitioning from traditional methods to modern technologies. However, measures to reduce environmental pollution due to carbon emissions and PM2.5 do not receive rational attention and represent a serious threat to the continent. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the adoption of green innovation technologies on carbon and particulate matter (PM2.5) emission reduction in some of the most polluted African countries and its effect on the economic growth from 2000 to 2019. We based on cross-sectional dependency analysis, unit root test, and other robust tests for the data analysis since they are best fit and accurate for the data interpretation. The short- and long-term CS-ARDL empirical evidence showed a negative and significant impact of the adoption of green energy technology innovation on carbon and particulate matter emissions, implying that the adoption of green energy technology significantly reduces the emission of carbon and PM2.5 emissions. However, the results show that the use of non-renewable energies has a negative effect on environmental sustainability since it increases carbon and particle matter emissions. There is a need for the selected African countries to efficiently adopt ecofriendly technologies to reduce their carbon and PM2.5 emissions and take advantage of natural resources such as the constant sunny weather to implement the installation of solar panels as a source of energy and other technologies. Various recommendations have been made to effectively reduce CO2 and particulate matter emissions; future studies should be conducted on the implementation of the recommended policies.