IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/alv/journl/v5y2023i1id258.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Africa's Continental Free Trade and Sustainable Development: An Economic Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan D. Quartey

    (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana))

Abstract

The quest for Africa's development breakthrough appears to be closely related to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The Economic Commission of Africa believes the move could solve chronic poverty and joblessness prevailing on the continent. However, the benefit of hindsight reveals limits set by the laws of thermodynamics on the extent to which economic activities can be most beneficial to humanity. The motivation to expand trade thrives on energy for extraction, production and consumption, each of which yields undesirable waste products. The need for sustainable development has been a response to the limits imposed by excessive waste, stretching environmental carrying capacity to the breaking point. Thus, in order not to repeat the development errors of the past, Africa's Continental Free Trade Area needs to ascertain the extent and cost of resultant environmental damage. Clearly, AfCFTA is yet to consider such effects. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, should be a reminder of how devastating a collision between economic activity and the natural environment can be. Existing studies on AfCFTA have so far been restricted to quantifying the effects of tariff reductions, non-tariff barriers and trade facilitation. This study, however, assesses the outcomes of the efforts being made to achieve the goals of AfCFTA, from an environmental economics analytical framework, in line with tenets of sustainable development. It employs data mainly from the World Bank and AfCFTA Secretariat to analyze the welfare effects of AfCFTA through resultant deforestation, solid waste management and climate change adaptation. The study found the resulting environmental damage to be US$ 744.71 billion, which far exceeds the projected AfCFTA benefits of US$450 billion to be realized by 2035. Thus, in its current form, AfCFTA will reduce the economic welfare of Africa by at least US$294.71 billion by 2035. While in the formative stages, AfCFTA will be better served if stakeholders can pay attention to the call for a fully operational plan to offset the impending environmental damage, which cannot be taken for granted if Africa wants sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan D. Quartey, 2023. "Africa's Continental Free Trade and Sustainable Development: An Economic Assessment," Management & Economics Research Journal, Faculty of Economics, Commercial and Management Sciences, Ziane Achour University of Djelfa, vol. 5(1), pages 15-44, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:alv:journl:v:5:y:2023:i:1:id:258
    DOI: 10.48100/merj.2023.258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mer-j.com/merj/index.php/merj/article/view/258
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.48100/merj.2023.258?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2020. "Ghana Country Environmental Analysis," World Bank Publications - Reports 33726, The World Bank Group.
    2. Selden Thomas M. & Song Daqing, 1994. "Environmental Quality and Development: Is There a Kuznets Curve for Air Pollution Emissions?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 147-162, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan D. Quartey, 2021. "Addressing the Missing Link for Sustainable African Continental Free Trade: Lessons from Ghana’s Manufacturing Industry," Asian Development Policy Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Sousa, Alexandre Gervasio & Araujo, Aracy Alves & Santos, Ricardo Bruno Nascimento dos & Santos, Francivane Teles Pampolha Dos & Diniz, Marvelo Bentes, 2008. "Sustentabilidade e meio ambiente no Brasil: uma análise a partir da curva de Kuznets," 46th Congress, July 20-23, 2008, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil 103103, Sociedade Brasileira de Economia, Administracao e Sociologia Rural (SOBER).
    3. Copeland, Brian R. & Taylor, M. Scott, 1999. "Trade, spatial separation, and the environment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 137-168, February.
    4. Dutta, Dilip & Ghosh, Paritosh Chandra, 2003. "Re-examining Economic Growth-Environment Relationship: Evidence from High-, Medium- And Low-Income Countries," Working Papers 3, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    5. Michael Greenstone & Rema Hanna, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3038-3072, October.
    6. Hiroyuki Taguchi, 2011. "Regional Issues in Environmental Management," Chapters, in: Elzbieta Broniewicz (ed.), Environmental Management in Practice, IntechOpen.
    7. Managi, Shunsuke, 2006. "Are there increasing returns to pollution abatement? Empirical analytics of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in pesticides," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 617-636, June.
    8. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.
    9. Khan, Syed Abdul Rehman & Zaman, Khalid & Zhang, Yu, 2016. "The relationship between energy-resource depletion, climate change, health resources and the environmental Kuznets curve: Evidence from the panel of selected developed countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 468-477.
    10. Opschoor, J. (Hans) B., 1995. "Ecospace and the fall and rise of throughput intensity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 137-140, November.
    11. Song, Tao & Zheng, Tingguo & Tong, Lianjun, 2008. "An empirical test of the environmental Kuznets curve in China: A panel cointegration approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 381-392, September.
    12. Giedrė Lapinskienė & Kęstutis Peleckis & Neringa Slavinskaitė, 2017. "Energy consumption, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union countries," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 1082-1097, November.
    13. Edward B. Barbier, 2003. "The Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 253-272, June.
    14. Hameed, Shahzad & Wei, Wei & Farrukh, Umer & Mushtaq, Khali, 2019. "Switching to Hydropower renewable energy to mitigate the effects of the carbon emissions in South and East Asian economies," MPRA Paper 90435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Matthew Kahn, 1995. "Micro Evidence on the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Public Economics 9507001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2009. "Driving Factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Impact from Kyoto Protocol," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 190, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Bradford David F. & Fender Rebecca A & Shore Stephen H. & Wagner Martin, 2005. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Exploring a Fresh Specification," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, June.
    18. Ghimire, Narishwar & Woodward, Richard T., 2013. "Under- and over-use of pesticides: An international analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 73-81.
    19. Lenzen, Manfred & Wier, Mette & Cohen, Claude & Hayami, Hitoshi & Pachauri, Shonali & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2006. "A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 181-207.
    20. Jha, Raghbendra & Murthy, K. V. Bhanu, 2003. "An inverse global environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 352-368, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; African Continental Free Tade; Deforestation; Economic Welfare; Environmental Damage; Sustainable Development; Waste Management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q37 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Issues in International Trade
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:alv:journl:v:5:y:2023:i:1:id:258. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chihab Ilimi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fedjedz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.