Zero-pollution effect and economic development: standard and nested environmental Kuznets curve analyses for West Africa

The Economic Community of West African States has keyed into the various international agreements that seek to protect the environment and reduce gaseous emissions. This study investigated the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic development for West Africa, between 1990 and 2014. Standard and nested-EKC models were estimated using the panel ARDL approach. Both models validate the U-shaped EKC hypothesis, but perceptible more in the long-run and require per capita incomes of $4958 and $853 to produce zero-pollution effects. While the manufacturing and industrial sectors are not significantly large enough to cause environmental degradation even though the volume of trade has increased significantly, the technology-CO2 relationship is monotonic in all the models. This implies that West African countries have not fully explored and employed the different forms of technology required for per capita income to either produce a zero-pollution effect or to start decarbonising the environment. For now, economic development leads CO2 emissions and can be abated by policies that encourage natural agricultural practices and the use of renewable sources of energy.