IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/agd/wpaper/23-043.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Towards a Green Future for Sub-Saharan Africa: Do electricity access and public debt drive environmental progress?

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen K. Dimnwobi

    (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria)

  • Kingsley I. Okere

    (Gregory University, Uturu, Nigeria)

  • Bernard C. Azolibe

    (Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria)

  • Kingsley C. Onyenwife

    (Igbariam, Nigeria)

Abstract

The combination of rising debt levels, poor electricity access, and environmental deterioration could threaten the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, this inquiry examined the implications of public borrowing and access to electricity on environmental sustainability (proxied by ecological footprint (ECOL) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), largely overlooked in the literature. In addition to pre-estimation, diagnostic and robustness checks utilized in the study, the instrumental variable generalized method of moment (IV-GMM) approach is employed to examine annual data from 39 SSA economies between 2005 and 2018. The key findings indicate that public debt negatively influences environmental sustainability in the region, while access to electricity exerts a positive and significant impact on environmental sustainability. The study provides recommendations for SSA policymakers to significantly reduce pollution and protect the environment which is vital for sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen K. Dimnwobi & Kingsley I. Okere & Bernard C. Azolibe & Kingsley C. Onyenwife, 2023. "Towards a Green Future for Sub-Saharan Africa: Do electricity access and public debt drive environmental progress?," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 23/043, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:23/043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Towards-a-Green-Future-for-Sub-Saharan-Africa.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2023
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emrah Bese & Haven Swint Friday & Cihan zden, 2021. "The Effect of External Debt on Emissions: Evidence from China," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(1), pages 440-447.
    2. Hashem Pesaran, M. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2008. "Testing slope homogeneity in large panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 50-93, January.
    3. Boly, Mohamed & Combes, Jean-Louis & Menuet, Maxime & Minea, Alexandru & Motel, Pascale Combes & Villieu, Patrick, 2022. "Can public debt mitigate environmental debt? Theory and empirical evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Yu, Zhang & Khan, Syed Abdul Rehman & Ponce, Pablo & Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz & Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose, 2022. "Factors affecting carbon emissions in emerging economies in the context of a green recovery: Implications for sustainable development goals," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    6. Olumide Olusegun Olaoye, 2022. "Sub‐Saharan Africa's debt‐financed growth: How sustainable and inclusive?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(4), pages 443-458, December.
    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. Stephen K. Dimnwobi & Kingsley I. Okere & Bernard C. Azolibe & Kingsley C. Onyenwife, 2023. "Towards a Green Future for Sub-Saharan Africa: Do electricity access and public debt drive environmental progress?," Working Papers 23/043, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    2. Sun, Yunpeng & Tian, Wenjuan & Mehmood, Usman & Zhang, Xiaoyu & Tariq, Salman, 2023. "How do natural resources, urbanization, and institutional quality meet with ecological footprints in the presence of income inequality and human capital in the next eleven countries?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    3. Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh & Iram Mushtaq & Asad Abbas & Sana Sultan, 2024. "Convergence Hypothesis and Economic Growth in ECO Countries: An Insight from MM-QR Approach," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 89-104.
    4. Stephen Taiwo Onifade & Bright Akwasi Gyamfi & Ilham Haouas & Simplice A. Asongu, 2024. "Extending the frontiers of financial development for sustainability of the MENA states: The roles of resource abundance and institutional quality," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 1971-1986, June.
    5. Hassan, Hassan & Tian, Shanwu & Safi, Adnan & Umar, Muhammad, 2024. "Climate commitments and financial moderation: A deep dive into renewable energy's influence on OECD carbon footprints," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1484-1495.
    6. Liddle, Brantley & Parker, Steven, 2022. "One more for the road: Reconsidering whether OECD gasoline income and price elasticities have changed over time," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Mohamed Mabrouki, 2023. "Patent, Education, Human Capital, and Economic Growth in Scandinavian Countries: a Dynamic Panel CS-ARDL Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(3), pages 3028-3043, September.
    8. 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).
    9. Shreya Pal, 2024. "The International Capital Flows and Domestic Savings–domestic Investment Nexus: A Comparative Evidence Between Heterogeneous Developing Regions," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 13(2), pages 169-212, December.
    10. Quynh Chau Pham Holland & Benjamin Liu & Eduardo Roca, 2019. "International funding cost and heterogeneous mortgage interest-rate pass-through: a bank-level analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1255-1289, October.
    11. Jin, Taeyoung, 2022. "Impact of heat and electricity consumption on energy intensity: A panel data analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PA).
    12. Marcus Box & Karl Gratzer & Xiang Lin, 2023. "Self-employment, corruption, and property rights: a comparative analysis of European and CEE economies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, January.
    13. Baltagi, Badi H. & Feng, Qu & Kao, Chihwa, 2016. "Estimation of heterogeneous panels with structural breaks," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(1), pages 176-195.
    14. Mounir Dahmani & Mohamed Mabrouki & Adel Ben Youssef, 2022. "The Information and Communication Technologies-Economic Growth Nexus in Tunisia - A Cross-Section Dynamic Panel Approach," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 18(2), pages 161-174.
    15. Farouk M. Frnana & Ponle Henry Kareem, 2025. "Pathways to Achieving Low Energy-Poverty Problems in Central African Nations with Government Effectiveness, Technology, Natural Resources and Sustainable Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, January.
    16. Huntington, Hillard & Liddle, Brantley, 2022. "How energy prices shape OECD economic growth: Panel evidence from multiple decades," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    17. Yu Shuangshuang & Wenzhong Zhu & Nafeesa Mughal & Sergio Ivan Vargas Aparcana & Iskandar Muda, 2023. "The impact of education and digitalization on female labour force participation in BRICS: an advanced panel data analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    18. Zhou, Long & Alharthi, Majed & Aziz, Babar & Kok, Shiau Hui & Wasim, Sarah & Dong, Xiaohong, 2024. "Illuminating the contributions of fintech, mineral resources, and foreign direct investment in alleviating environmental issues: An empirical analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Lei, Xiying & Alharthi, Majed & Ahmad, Ishtiaq & Aziz, Babar & Abdin, Zain ul, 2022. "Importance of international relations for the promotion of renewable energy, preservation of natural resources and environment: Empirics from SEA nations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 1250-1257.
    20. Usman Mehmood, 2024. "Assessing the Impacts of Eco-innovations, Economic Growth, Urbanization on Ecological Footprints in G-11: Exploring the Sustainable Development Policy Options," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 16849-16867, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental sustainability; SSA; Public debt; Electricity access; Ecological Footprint; Carbon Emission;
    All these keywords.

    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:23/043. 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.