Sustainable development or Environmental Kuznets Curve model: Which route for Africa?

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) proposes uncontrolled pollution during initial development stage of a nation and then a gradual shift to environmental protection and remediation as income (GDP) improves, a developmental route that was used by a few countries. This theory, however, is marred with a lot of conceptual and ecological errors. Importantly, there is little evidence of an EKC pathway, mainly because the “statistical analysis on which the EKC is based is not robust” (Stern in International society for ecological economics internet encyclopaedia of ecological economics the Environmental Kuznets Curve, 2003). This study investigates through questionnaire survey, the opinions of young African students studying in China, on the issue of development with environmental pollution and degradation. Results show that 72% of respondents agreed to development with pollution citing EKC, an outcome that indicates the possible developmental route likely to be followed by majority of Africa. The study concluded that environmental protection discussions should not be done at economic level but at ethical level to save human life and conserve biodiversity. The study recommends that all nations, regardless of level of economic development, be encouraged to mainstream the AICHI Biodiversity Targets in their national (local) developmental plans to ensure sustainable development agenda fulfilment. Also, as a precautionary measure, nations should embrace the “polluter-stops-polluting” against the usual “polluter–pays–principle”.