The impact of climate action on energy security in West Africa: Evidence from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria

Abstract

AbstractThe study investigates the impact of climate action on energy security in West Africa using an autoregressive distributed lag and an error correction model. Empirical results for Burkina Faso showed that total carbon emissions and climate finance improved energy security performance in the country in the short and long run, while capacity building and energy efficiency impaired energy security performance in the short run. In the long run, capacity‐building efforts are estimated to improve energy security performance in Burkina Faso. For Ghana, results showed that total carbon emissions improved energy security performance in Ghana while energy efficiency impaired energy security performance in the short run. Results for climate finance and capacity building are found to be insignificant, and no long‐run results are found for Ghana. Lastly, results for Nigeria showed that total carbon emissions improved energy security performance in the long run. The short‐run result for total carbon emissions and climate finance is found to be insignificant, while capacity building and energy efficiency impaired energy security performance in the long and short run. Considering the need to reduce carbon emissions during full implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions, policies should aim at decoupling carbon emissions from energy security by exploring options for low‐carbon energy development.