CO2 Emissions In Africa Research Articles

CO2 emissions and economic growth: Assessing the heterogeneous effects across climate regimes in Africa

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.

MODELLING THE IMPACT OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND URBANIZATION ON ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN SOUTH AFRICA: ASSESSING THE MODERATING ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL

Apart from being the most urbanized and largest emitter of CO2 emissions in Africa, South Africa currently harbours an ecological deficit territory mainly due to its desire to attain more growth with less attention to its natural environment. Since environmental distortions are mainly an outcome of human activities, this study becomes the first to investigate the linkage between natural resource (NR), human capital, energy consumption, and ecological footprint (EF) in South Africa. Findings from the long-run results reveal that energy consumption, natural resource, economic growth, and urbanization add to the EF, while human capital curtails environmental deterioration. The interaction between human capital and urbanization helps in mitigating environmental degradation, which suggests a moderating effect of human capital in urban sustainability. The CCR, DOLS and FMOLS confirm the robustness of the findings. A feedback causality exists between natural resource and economic growth, and between economic growth and EF. Natural resources and urbanization also Granger cause EF. Lastly, policies relating to urban and natural resource sustainability and human capital development are discussed.Keywords: Energy Consumption; Natural Resource; Human Capital; Urbanization; Ecological Footprint; South Africa.JEL Classifications: Q40, Q45, Q32.DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.11099

Renewable energy as a determinant of inter-country differentials in CO2 emissions in Africa

A logarithmically transformed General Linear Model (GLM) is used to analyze secondary data from the following World Bank data bases: Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), Spreadsheets for Carbon Emissions, and Country Development Profile. The hypothesis of renewable energy consumption as a determinant of inter-country differentials in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Africa is tested. CO2 emissions constitute the dependent variable (DV) while renewable energy consumption is the independent variable (IV). Four control variables, including 3 interval variables: level of urbanization, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, Gross National Product (GNP) per capita; and one binary variable, namely nationality of former colonial power, are included. Energy consumption is found to be inversely linked to CO2 emissions; it explains about 80% (R2 = 0.795, significant at the 0.05 level) of the inter-country differentials in CO2 emissions. These results confirm the study’s expectations and lend credence to findings extolling renewable energy consumption as a means of curbing CO2 emissions in Europe and North America.

Impact of natural gas consumption on sub-Saharan Africa's CO2 emissions: Evidence and policy perspective

With huge natural gas(NG) reserves and current low (1%) share of non-hydro renewables in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), can natural gas offer SSA a low-carbon energy transition? Employing data from 1980 to 2017, this paper investigates the impact of NG consumption on SSA's CO2 emissions using data-driven nonparametric additive regression(NPAR) which can reveal both linear and nonlinear effects. Augmenting NPAR with translog production function(TPF) estimates of interfuel substitution elasticities and bias technological progress over sample period(advantage of TPF), we further provide evidence of the indirect effect of NG consumption on SSA's CO2 emissions through mechanism analysis. From the empirical results, the linear effect shows NG positively impact CO2 emissions while the nonlinear effect indicates a downward decreasing trend (meaning expansion in NG consumption will gradually lower CO2 emissions). Nonlinearly, urbanization and energy efficiency also show positive “inverted U-Shaped” and “downward slopping” respectively meaning sustainable urban energy and energy efficiency practices improvement can lead to CO2 reduction respectively in SSA. The reducing effect of NG consumption on CO2 (the nonlinear effect) is realized through the enhancement of positive bias technological progress of NG over coal and oil but not merely substitution of coal and oil for NG. Technological progress improvement in NG use will also reduce the positive linear effect of urbanization and energy efficiency on CO2 emissions of SSA. Oil is more likely to be substituted for NG than that of coal in SSA. The scenario analysis shows a total of 6.9%, 7.6% and 8.3% of energy conservation is realized in 2022, 2026 and 2030 with a corresponding CO2 reduction of 18.7%, 20.7% and 22.9% respectively for a continuous 10% investment in NG. Institutional, market-oriented and technology challenges hinder NG development among major producers in SSA. Based on the results, several policy measures are put forward to promote SSA's low-carbon energy transition.

Decomposition and decoupling analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in African countries during 1984‒2014

The potential for mitigating climate change is growing worldwide, with an increasing emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions and minimising the impact on the environment. African continent is faced with the unique challenge of climate change whilst coping with extreme poverty, explosive population growth and economic difficulties. CO2 emission patterns in Africa are analysed in this study to understand primary CO2 sources and underlying driving forces further. Data are examined using gravity model, logarithmic mean divisia index and Tapio's decoupling indicator of CO2 emissions from economic development in 20 selected African countries during 1984−2014. Results reveal that CO2 emissions increased by 2.11% (453.73 million ton) over the research period. Gravity centre for African CO2 emissions had shifted towards the northeast direction. Population and economic growth were primary driving forces of CO2 emissions. Industrial structure and emission efficiency effects partially offset the growth of CO2 emissions. The economic growth effect was an offset factor in central African countries and Zimbabwe due to political instability and economic mismanagement. Industrial structure and emission efficiency were insufficient to decouple economic development from CO2 emissions and relieve the pressure of population explosion on CO2 emissions in Africa. Thus, future efforts in reducing CO2 emissions should focus on scale-up energy-efficient technologies, renewable energy update, emission pricing and long-term green development towards sustainable development goals by 2030.

Do Asymmetric Financial Development Shocks Matter for CO2 Emissions in Africa? A Nonlinear Panel ARDL–PMG Approach

This paper aims to study the response of CO2 emissions in the African continent to asymmetric financial development shocks by incorporating this asymmetric component in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Following the Shin et al. (2014) nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach in panel form, we construct a nonlinear panel ARDL–PMG model to assess both short- and long-run impact of positive and negative financial development movements on CO2 emissions, for a panel of 22 African countries over the period 1980–2014. Asymmetric results prove first that the EKC hypothesis is found to be supported in the long term but not supported in the short term in Africa. Positive financial development shocks are found to be beneficial for fighting against pollution in the long run. However, the asymmetric findings prove that financial instability exerts a positive impact on CO2 emissions in the short run. In terms of policy implications, African governments should put in place durable policies favouring the development of their financial systems, make funding of green projects less vulnerable in the short term to negative shocks hitting financial systems and improve financial development in the long term, by reducing market imperfections.

ICT, openness and CO2 emissions in Africa.

This study investigates how information and communication technology (ICT) complements globalisation in order to influence CO2 emissions in 44 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000-2012. ICT is measured with internet penetration and mobile phone penetration whereas globalisation is designated in terms of trade and financial openness. The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments. The findings broadly show that ICT can be employed to dampen the potentially negative effect of globalisation on environmental degradation like CO2 emissions. Practical, policy and theoretical implications are discussed.

CO<SUB align="right">2 emissions in Africa. Persistence and economic implications

This paper deals with the analysis of the statistical properties of the CO2 emissions in Africa using both aggregated and disaggregated data by components (gas, liquid, solid, cement and flaring). The results indicate orders of integration which are in all cases equal to or higher than one, finding thus statistical evidence against the hypothesis of mean reversion, which implies shocks having permanent and/or explosive effects on the series under examination. This is in line with the results obtained by other authors for the developed countries, implying that in the event of shocks producing negative economic effects, strong measured should be adopted by the authorities to recover the original trends.

Is the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis a sound basis for environmental policy in Africa?

Achieving economic development and environmental sustainability simultaneously is one of the most important development challenges for Africa today. The relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability is founded on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). This paper examines the validity of the hypothesis and the driving factors of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in five African countries using the STIRPAT empirical model, panel cointegration and fully modified ordinary least squares. Unlike previous studies, economic development is disaggregated into agriculture and industrial economic development. The results show that there is no evidence of the validity of the hypothesis in Africa, regardless of whether economic development is driven by agriculture or industrialisation. Energy structure and energy intensity are the two major driving forces of CO2 emissions in Africa. Population growth and urbanisation have negative relationship with CO2 emissions. From our results, the EKC is not a sound basis for environmental policy in Africa; rather, environmental policy in Africa, specifically for CO2 emissions mitigation, should focus on encouraging energy efficiency, enhancing the use of clean energy, incorporating the impact of population growth and harnessing the positive impacts of urbanisation.

Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis and the role of globalization in selected African countries

The present study incorporates globalization and energy intensity into the CO2 emissions function and investigates the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in 19 African countries for the time period of 1971–2012. We have applied the ARDL bounds testing approach for cointegration to examine the long run relationship in the variables. Our results confirmed the presence of cointegration between the series in Africa, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results indicated the positive effect of energy intensity on CO2 emissions in Africa, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, and Tunisia while energy intensity declines CO2 emissions in the case of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Globalization decreases CO2 emissions in Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Tunisia and Zambia but increases CO2 emissions in Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania. The EKC exists in Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Morocco, Tunisia and Zambia but U-shaped relationship is found between economic growth and CO2 emissions in Sudan and Tanzania.

Trade Openness, Domestic and Foreign Investments, and the Environment

This paper studies the impact of growth, and trade and investment openness on the environment at the regional level. We find support for the environmental Kuznet Curve hypothesis for CO2 emissions in Africa, Asia and OECD countries. We show that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has detrimental effects on CO2 emissions in Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, the former United Socialist Soviet Republic and Eastern Europe, and South America, but not in Asia where it seems to have beneficial effects. FDI raises SO2 emissions in South America, although it does lower them in Africa. Local investment is contributing significantly to both CO2 and SO2 emission increases in most regions while trade openness reduces (increases) CO2 in OECD countries (South America).

Carbon footprint and emission determinants in Africa

Increasing economic activities and rapid demographic changes in a number of African countries may have consequential effects on environmental quality. In this paper, a multi-region input–output modeling framework is used to show that except Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Rest of North Africa, all other African countries/regions are net-importers of embodied emissions. With respect to the emission-intensive and trade exposed sectors, however, only Egypt, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe are rather net-exporters of embodied emissions. Secondly, panel regression techniques that allow cross-section dependence are used to investigate the determinants of CO2 emissions in Africa. The estimated elasticities for per capita income and energy intensity are positive, statistically significant and robust for both low- and middle-income African countries. The most active segment of the labor force (percentage of the population between age 14 and 64) and industrialization exert significant positive effects on CO2 emissions in middle income countries while the impact of urbanization, population and trade openness appears generally insignificant across income groups. The differential impacts of both economic and demographic variables on CO2 emissions may have implications for the design and implementation of development and climate protection policies.

Estimation of Soil Carbon Gains Upon Improved Management within Croplands and Grasslands of Africa

Many agro(eco)systems in Africa have been degraded as a result of past disturbances, including deforestation, overgrazing, and over exploitation. These systems can be managed to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon sinks in vegetation and soil. The scope for soil organic carbon gains from improved management and restoration within degraded and non-degraded croplands and grasslands in Africa is estimated at 20–43 Tg C year−1, assuming that 'best' management practices can be introduced on 20% of croplands and 10% of grasslands. Under the assumption that new steady state levels will be reached after 25 years of sustained management, this would correspond with a mitigation potential of 4–9% of annual CO2 emissions in Africa. The mechanisms that are being put in place to implement the Kyoto Protocol - through C emission trading - and prevailing agricultural policies will largely determine whether farmers can engage in activities that enhance C sequestration in Africa. Mitigation of climate change by increased carbon sequestration in the soil appears particularly useful when addressed in combination with other pressing regional challenges that affect the livelihood of the people, such as combating land degradation and ensuring food security, while at the same time curtailing global anthropogenic emissions.