IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i6d10.1007_s10668-023-04412-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does deforestation endanger energy security? A panel GMM evidence from 47 sub-Saharan African countries

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Amechi Ofozor

    (Universiti Putra Malaysia
    Jasmiza Solutions Sdn Bhd)

  • A. S. Abdul-Rahim

    (Universiti Putra Malaysia
    Universiti Putra Malaysia)

  • Lee Chin

    (Universiti Putra Malaysia)

  • Yasmin Bani

    (Universiti Putra Malaysia)

  • Chindo Sulaiman

    (Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus)

Abstract

This empirical study investigates the impact of deforestation on energy security in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, we explored the intricate dynamics between deforestation, key energy security indicators, and socio-economic factors in sub-Saharan Africa. We employed a comprehensive dataset and analysed it with system GMM methodology and difference GMM and pooled OLS as robustness checks. The study validates the model’s suitability and confirms a significant negative relationship between deforestation rates and energy security. A central finding is the consistently negative impact of deforestation on energy security across various models. Diminishing forest cover is shown to jeopardise a nation’s ability to meet energy demands, underscoring the urgent need for policies promoting forest conservation and sustainable management. The study also identifies positive associations between energy security and total primary energy supply, per capita energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and renewable energy. Higher energy supply and consumption and increased reliance on renewables contribute to enhanced energy security. However, unchecked population growth is highlighted as a potential impediment. Policy implications advocate for comprehensive interventions, emphasising conservation strategies, renewable energy adoption, and population management. It also calls for foreign trade policies that emphasise timber certification and sustainability agreements to protect forest resources alongside regional security measures and collaborative guidelines for sustainable forest management. The findings provide a nuanced understanding for policymakers, offering a roadmap to navigate challenges and opportunities in pursuing sustainable and secure energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Amechi Ofozor & A. S. Abdul-Rahim & Lee Chin & Yasmin Bani & Chindo Sulaiman, 2025. "Does deforestation endanger energy security? A panel GMM evidence from 47 sub-Saharan African countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 12921-12943, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04412-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04412-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-04412-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-04412-5?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:plo:pone00:0153357 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Sini, Snow & Abdul-Rahim, A.S. & Chin, Lee & Said, Rusmawati & Sulaiman, Chindo, 2022. "Natural resources’ impact on capital flow and conflict relationship in Africa: A novel insight from GMM and quantile regression," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Robert Bailis & Rudi Drigo & Adrian Ghilardi & Omar Masera, 2015. "The carbon footprint of traditional woodfuels," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(3), pages 266-272, March.
    4. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    5. Phosiso Sola & Caroline Ochieng & Jummai Yila & Miyuki Iiyama, 2016. "Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(3), pages 635-642, June.
    6. Leung, Guy C.K. & Cherp, Aleh & Jewell, Jessica & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "Securitization of energy supply chains in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 316-326.
    7. Huang, Xiao & Huang, Shoujun & Shui, Ailun, 2021. "Government spending and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 387-414.
    8. Kevin Cleaver & Gotz Schreiber, 1994. "Fighting the Population/Agriculture/Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 10005, The World Bank Group.
    9. Abbasi, Kashif Raza & Hussain, Khadim & Redulescu, Magdalena & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2021. "Does natural resources depletion and economic growth achieve the carbon neutrality target of the UK? A way forward towards sustainable development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Leman ERDAL, 2015. "Determinants of Energy Supply Security: An Econometric Analysis For Turkey," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 15(2), pages 153-163.
    11. van Eijck, Janske & Romijn, Henny, 2008. "Prospects for Jatropha biofuels in Tanzania: An analysis with Strategic Niche Management," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 311-325, January.
    12. Le, Thai-Ha & Chang, Youngho & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Yoshino, Naoyuki, 2019. "Energy insecurity in Asia: A multi-dimensional analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 84-95.
    13. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    14. Daniel Gbetnkom, 2009. "Forest Depletion and Food Security of Poor Rural Populations in Africa: Evidence from Cameroon," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(2), pages 261-286, March.
    15. Chester, Lynne, 2010. "Conceptualising energy security and making explicit its polysemic nature," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 887-895, February.
    16. Gannon, Kate Elizabeth & Conway, Declan & Pardoe, Joanna & Ndiyoi, Mukelabai & Batisani, Nnyaladzi & Odada, Eric & Olago, Daniel & Opere, Alfred & Kgosietsile, Sinah & Nyambe, Mubita & Omukuti, Jessic, 2018. "Business experience of floods and drought-related water and electricity supply disruption in three cities in sub-Saharan Africa during the 2015/2016 El Niño," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90480, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Abdullah Albaker & Kashif Raza Abbasi & Akram Masoud Haddad & Magdalena Radulescu & Catalin Manescu & Georgiana Tatiana Bondac, 2023. "Analyzing the Impact of Renewable Energy and Green Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the MENA Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-19, August.
    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. Lokonon Boris Odilon Kounagbè & Adeleke Oluwole Salami, 2017. "Working Paper 269 - Climate Change and Renewable Energy Generation in Africa," Working Paper Series 2386, African Development Bank.
    2. Jun Wen & Xinxin Zhao & Quan-Jing Wang & Chun-Ping Chang, 2021. "The impact of international sanctions on energy security," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(3), pages 458-480, May.
    3. Yang, Hao-Chang & Feng, Gen-Fu & Zhao, Xin Xin & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2022. "The impacts of energy insecurity on green innovation: A multi-country study," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 139-154.
    4. Umer Shahzad & Mohamed Elheddad & Julia Swart & Sudeshna Ghosh & Buhari Dogan, 2023. "The role of biomass energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental sustainability in G7 economies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 781-801, January.
    5. Daniel Ştefan Armeanu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2017. "Empirical Study towards the Drivers of Sustainable Economic Growth in EU-28 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, December.
    6. Youngho Kang & Byung-Yeon Kim, 2018. "Immigration and economic growth: do origin and destination matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(46), pages 4968-4984, October.
    7. Alcaraz, Carlo & Villalvazo, Sergio, 2017. "The effect of natural gas shortages on the Mexican economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 147-153.
    8. Thorsten Lehnert, 2019. "Asset pricing implications of good governance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Arturas Juodis, 2013. "Cointegration Testing in Panel VAR Models Under Partial Identification and Spatial Dependence," UvA-Econometrics Working Papers 13-08, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Dept. of Econometrics.
    10. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    11. Eicher, Theo S. & Schreiber, Till, 2010. "Structural policies and growth: Time series evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 169-179, January.
    12. Kitazawa, Yoshitsugu, 2001. "Exponential regression of dynamic panel data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 7-13, October.
    13. Manthos D. Delis & Sotirios Kokas & Steven Ongena, 2016. "Foreign Ownership and Market Power in Banking: Evidence from a World Sample," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2-3), pages 449-483, March.
    14. Alessandra Canepa & Fawaz Khaled, 2018. "Housing, Housing Finance and Credit Risk," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-23, May.
    15. Nilanjan Banik & John Gilbert, 2010. "Regional Integration and Trade Costs in South Asia," Chapters, in: Douglas H. Brooks & Susan F. Stone (ed.), Trade Facilitation and Regional Cooperation in Asia, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Efobi, Uchenna & Asongu, Simplice & Okafor, Chinelo & Tchamyou, Vanessa & Tanankem, Belmondo, 2016. "Diaspora Remittance Inflow, Financial Development and the Industrialisation of Africa," MPRA Paper 76121, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Paul Levine & Alex Mandilaras & Jun Wang, 2008. "Public Debt Maturity And Currency Crises," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(1), pages 79-106, February.
    18. Wen Xu, 2016. "Estimation of Dynamic Panel Data Models with Stochastic Volatility Using Particle Filters," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-13, October.
    19. Xiaowen Xie, 2023. "Analyzing the Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Poverty Reduction: A Study Based on System GMM in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-20, September.
    20. Eschenhof, Sabine, 2009. "Standard Taylor rules revisited: A cross country study for European countries," Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics 196, Darmstadt University of Technology, Department of Law and Economics.

    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:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04412-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.