IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/agd/wpaper/19-093.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The criticality of growth, urbanization, electricity and fossil fuel consumption to environment sustainability in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Simplice A. Asongu

    (Yaoundé/Cameroon)

  • Mary Oluwatoyin Agboola

    (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

  • Andrew Adewale Alola

    (Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey)

  • Festus Victor Bekun

    (Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey)

Abstract

While most African economies are primarily sandwiched with the seemingly unsurmountable task of attaining consistent economic growth and unhindered energy supply, the enormous threat posed by environmental degradation has further complicated the economic and environmental sustainability drive. In this context, the present study examines the effect of economic growth, urbanization, electricity consumption, fossil fuel energy consumption, and total natural resources rent on pollutant emissions in Africa over the period 1980-2014. By employing selected African countries, the current study relies on the Kao and Pedroni cointegration tests to cointegration analysis, the Pesaran’s Panel Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive distributive lag methodology (ARDL-PMG) for long run regression while Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) is employed for the detection of causality direction among the outlined variables. The study traces long run equilibrium relationships b-etween examined indicators. The ARDL-PMG results suggest a statistical positive relationship between pollutant emissions and urbanization, electricity consumption and non-renewable energy consumption. Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Granger causality test lends support to the long-run regression results. Bi-directional causality is observed between pollutant emissions, electricity consumption, economic growth and pollutant emissions while a unidirectional causality is apparent between total natural resources rent and pollutant emissions. Based on these results, several policy implications for the African continent were suggested. (a) The need for a paradigm shift from fossil fuel sources to renewables is encouraged in the region (b) The need to embrace carbon storage and capturing techniques to decouple pollutant emissions from economic growth on the continent’s growth trajectory. Further policy insights are elucidated.

Suggested Citation

  • Simplice A. Asongu & Mary Oluwatoyin Agboola & Andrew Adewale Alola & Festus Victor Bekun, 2019. "The criticality of growth, urbanization, electricity and fossil fuel consumption to environment sustainability in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/093, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:19/093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Growth-urbanisation-electricity-energy-and-the-environment.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2019
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simplice A. Asongu, 2018. "CO2 emission thresholds for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/023, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    2. Asongu, Simplice A. & Le Roux, Sara & Biekpe, Nicholas, 2017. "Environmental degradation, ICT and inclusive development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 353-361.
    3. Ozturk, Ilhan, 2010. "A literature survey on energy-growth nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 340-349, January.
    4. Fırat Emir & Festus Victor Bekun, 2019. "Energy intensity, carbon emissions, renewable energy, and economic growth nexus: New insights from Romania," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(3), pages 427-443, May.
    5. Wu, Jianxin & Wu, Yanrui & Guo, Xiumei & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2016. "Convergence of carbon dioxide emissions in Chinese cities: A continuous dynamic distribution approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 207-219.
    6. Lamia Jamel & Abdelkader Derbali, 2016. "Do energy consumption and economic growth lead to environmental degradation? Evidence from Asian economies," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1170653-117, December.
    7. Jahangir Alam, Mohammad & Ara Begum, Ismat & Buysse, Jeroen & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2012. "Energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth nexus in Bangladesh: Cointegration and dynamic causality analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 217-225.
    8. Sinha, Avik & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre, Daniel, 2017. "Exploring the Relationship between Energy Usage Segregation and Environmental Degradation in N-11 Countries," MPRA Paper 81212, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Sep 2017.
    9. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Loganathan, Nanthakumar & Muzaffar, Ahmed Taneem & Ahmed, Khalid & Ali Jabran, Muhammad, 2016. "How urbanization affects CO2 emissions in Malaysia? The application of STIRPAT model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 83-93.
    11. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    12. Andrew Adewale Alola & Uju Violet Alola, 2018. "Agricultural land usage and tourism impact on renewable energy consumption among Coastline Mediterranean Countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 29(8), pages 1438-1454, December.
    13. Oruj Gasimli & Ihtisham ul Haq & Sisira Kumara Naradda Gamage & Fadi Shihadeh & Prasanna Sisira Kumara Rajapakshe & Muhammad Shafiq, 2019. "Energy, Trade, Urbanization and Environmental Degradation Nexus in Sri Lanka: Bounds Testing Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, April.
    14. Cowan, Wendy N. & Chang, Tsangyao & Inglesi-Lotz, Roula & Gupta, Rangan, 2014. "The nexus of electricity consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions in the BRICS countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 359-368.
    15. Erik Dietzenbacher & Kakali Mukhopadhyay, 2007. "An Empirical Examination of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis for India: Towards a Green Leontief Paradox?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(4), pages 427-449, April.
    16. Akadiri, Ada Chigozie & Akadiri, Seyi Saint & Gungor, Hasan, 2019. "The role of natural gas consumption in Saudi Arabia's output and its implication for trade and environmental quality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 230-238.
    17. Salahuddin, Mohammad & Gow, Jeff & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "Is the long-run relationship between economic growth, electricity consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and financial development in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries robust?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 317-326.
    18. Ouedraogo, Nadia S., 2017. "Africa energy future: Alternative scenarios and their implications for sustainable development strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 457-471.
    19. Seyi Saint Akadiri & Festus Victor Bekun & Elham Taheri & Ada Chigozie Akadiri, 2019. "Carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: a causality evidence," International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(2/3), pages 320-336.
    20. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emission: A survey of empirical literature," MPRA Paper 100257, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    21. Inglesi-Lotz, Roula & Dogan, Eyup, 2018. "The role of renewable versus non-renewable energy to the level of CO2 emissions a panel analysis of sub- Saharan Africa’s Βig 10 electricity generators," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 36-43.
    22. Effiong, Ekpeno, 2016. "Urbanization and Environmental Quality in Africa," MPRA Paper 73224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    24. Tsun Se Cheong & Yanrui Wu & Jianxin Wu, 2016. "Evolution of carbon dioxide emissions in Chinese cities: trends and transitional dynamics," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 357-377, July.
    25. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    26. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2015. "Testing Weak Cross-Sectional Dependence in Large Panels," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6-10), pages 1089-1117, December.
    27. Yusuf, Sulaimon Aremu, 2014. "Impact of Energy Consumption and Environmental Degradation on Economic Growth in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 55529, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    28. Kakali Mukhopadhyay, 2008. "Air pollution and income distribution in India," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 15(1), pages 35-64, June.
    29. Festus Victor Bekun & Seyi Saint Akadiri, 2019. "Poverty and Agriculture in Southern Africa Revisited: A Panel Causality Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, February.
    30. Saint Akadiri, Seyi & Alola, Andrew Adewale & Akadiri, Ada Chigozie & Alola, Uju Violet, 2019. "Renewable energy consumption in EU-28 countries: Policy toward pollution mitigation and economic sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 803-810.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Qasim Raza Syed & Hooi Hooi Lean & Andrew Adewale Alola & Munir Ahmad, 2021. "Do Economic Policy Uncertainty and Geopolitical Risk Lead to Environmental Degradation? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "The rise and fall of the energy-carbon Kuznets curve: Evidence from Africa," Working Papers 21/069, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    3. Yuke Yuan & Sophia Shuang Chen & Yi Miao, 2023. "Unmanaged Urban Growth in Dar es Salaam: The Spatiotemporal Pattern and Influencing Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Asongu, Simplice A. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2021. "Inequality, finance and renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1), pages 678-688.
    5. Nicholas M. Odhiambo, "undated". "Trade Openness And Energy Consumption In Sub-Saharan African Countries: A Multivariate Panel Granger Causality Test," Working Papers AESRI08, African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI).
    6. Odhiambo, 2021. "Trade Openness and Energy Consumption in Sub-Saharan African Countries: A Multivariate Panel Granger Causality Test," Working Papers AERI0821, African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI).
    7. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "Financial Development, Human Capital Development and Climate Change in East and Southern Africa," Working Papers 21/042, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    8. Tao Zhang & Lin Li, 2021. "Research on temporal and spatial variations in the degree of coupling coordination of tourism–urbanization–ecological environment: a case study of Heilongjiang, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 8474-8491, June.
    9. Jean Pierre Namahoro & Qiaosheng Wu & Haijun Xiao & Na Zhou, 2021. "The Impact of Renewable Energy, Economic and Population Growth on CO 2 Emissions in the East African Region: Evidence from Common Correlated Effect Means Group and Asymmetric Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-21, January.
    10. Wojciech Chmielewski & Marta Postuła & Przemysław Dubel, 2023. "The Impact of Expenditure on Research and Development on Selected Energy Factors in the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-18, April.
    11. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.

    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. Simplice A. Asongu & Chimere O. Iheonu & Kingsley O. Odo, 2019. "The Conditional Relationship between Renewable Energy and Environmental Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/074, African Governance and Development Institute..
    2. Mary O. Agboola & Festus V. Bekun, 2019. "Does Agricultural Value Added Induce Environmental Degradation? Empirical Evidence from an Agrarian Country," CEREDEC Working Papers 19/040, Centre de Recherche pour le Développement Economique (CEREDEC).
    3. Shobande, Olatunji A. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2022. "The Critical Role of Education and ICT in Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Panel VAR Approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    4. Habib Ur Rahman & Umer Zaman & Jarosław Górecki, 2021. "The Role of Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and Globalization in Environmental Degradation: Empirical Evidence from the BRICS Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    5. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Driha, Oana M. & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2020. "The effects of tourism and globalization over environmental degradation in developed countries," MPRA Paper 100092, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sharma, Rajesh & Sinha, Avik & Kautish, Pradeep, 2020. "Does renewable energy consumption reduce ecological footprint? Evidence from eight developing countries of Asia," MPRA Paper 104277, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    7. Asongu, Simplice & Odhiambo, Nicholas, 2020. "The role of Globalization in Modulating the Effect of Environmental Degradation on Inclusive Human Development," MPRA Paper 103143, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Hamisu S. Ali & Solomon P. Nathaniel & Gizem Uzuner & Festus V. Bekun & Samuel A. Sarkodie, 2020. "Trivariate Modelling of the Nexus between Electricity Consumption, Urbanization and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Fresh Insights from Maki Cointegration and Causality Tests," Working Papers 20/010, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nwani, Chinazaekpere & Bekun, Festus Victor & Gyamfi, Bright Akwasi & Agozie, Divine Q., 2022. "Discerning the role of renewable energy and energy efficiency in finding the path to cleaner consumption and production patterns: New insights from developing economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    10. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "Financial Development, Human Capital Development and Climate Change in East and Southern Africa," Working Papers 21/042, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    11. Dervis Kirikkaleli & Hasan Güngör & Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo, 2022. "Consumption‐based carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in Chile," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1123-1137, March.
    12. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George, 2015. "Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Economic Growth: A Moral Dilemma," MPRA Paper 67422, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Balsalobre, Daniel & Sinha, Avik & Driha, Oana M. & Shujaat Mubarik, Muhammad, 2021. "Assessing the Impacts of Ageing and Natural Resource Extraction on Carbon Emissions: A proposed Policy Framework for European Economies," MPRA Paper 108159, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    14. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment–CO2 Emissions Nexus in Middle East and North African countries: Importance of Biomass Energy Consumption," MPRA Paper 91729, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Jan 2019.
    15. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Zaidi, Syed Anees Haider & Sinha, Avik & Gedikli, Ayfer & Hou, Fujun, 2019. "The role of stock market and banking sector development, and renewable energy consumption in carbon emissions: Insights from G-7 and N-11 countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 427-436.
    16. Ahsan Anwar & Avik Sinha & Arshian Sharif & Muhammad Siddique & Shoaib Irshad & Waseem Anwar & Summaira Malik, 2022. "The nexus between urbanization, renewable energy consumption, financial development, and CO2 emissions: evidence from selected Asian countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6556-6576, May.
    17. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Sengupta, Tuhin & Qin, Quande, 2020. "How Renewable Energy Consumption Contribute to Environmental Quality? The Role of Education in OECD Countries," MPRA Paper 100259, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 May 2020.
    18. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2020. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus: Evidence from a threshold model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    19. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George, 2017. "Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: An ethical dilemma," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 808-824.
    20. Shahzadi, Irum & Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan & Iqbal Khan, Muhammad Tariq & Amjad Makhdum, Muhammad Sohail & Ali, Qamar, 2022. "The nexus between research and development, renewable energy and environmental quality: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 1089-1099.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    non- renewable energy consumption; electricity consumption; economic growth; panel econometrics; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:agd:wpaper:19/093. 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: Asongu Simplice (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agdiycm.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.