The heterogeneous impacts of Sino-African trade relations on carbon intensity in Africa

Abstract

Studies on the environmental impacts of China–African trade relations are scarce. To fill the gap, this research examines the effects of Sino–African trade relations on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions intensity in Africa, employing panel quantile regression for 39 African countries over the period of 1992–2015. The results indicate that imports have a negative and significant effect on CO2 emissions intensity across all quantile distributions, whereas exports have a positive and significant effect, except at the 25th and 35th quantiles. The findings also confirm the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, particularly for countries at higher emissions points. The study also demonstrates that urbanisation and energy intensity positively affect CO2 intensity, while the effect of foreign direct investment is negative and significant, confirming the pollution halo hypothesis. Finally, policy implications are presented based on the findings of the study.