Impact of population size on consumption-based carbon emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from the method of moments quantile regression
Keywords:
Sub-Saharan Africa, Population size, environmental Kuznets curve, consumption-based carbon emissions, method of moments quantile regressionAbstract
Despite the plethora of studies on determinants of carbon dioxide emissions, studies that consider the role of population size in an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework are scanty in the environmental literature. Relying on the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model for analyzing environmental impacts, this study examined the impact of population size on consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions, controlling for per capita income, energy intensity, financial development, and natural resource rents in a panel of 19 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1995-2017. The study adopted the method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) and Fixed Effects Ordinary Least Squares (FEOLS) with Driscoll and Kraay standard error estimation techniques. Our findings are robust with alternative long-run panel specifications, including fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and canonical cointegration regressions, and show that population size, energy intensity, and financial development significantly promote consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions in SSA. The distributional effects of these factors, among other things, reveal that population size has a positive and significant effect on consumption-based CO2 emissions across the observed quantiles, with a more pronounced effect in lower consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions SSA economies. The model presented no evidence to validate the EKC hypothesis for Sub-Saharan Africa; policy implications of these findings were suggested.
References
Anochiwa, L. I., Agbanike, T. F., Ikpe, M., Ojike, R. O., & Obidike, P. C. (2022). Assessing the distributional effects of financial development on consumption-based carbon emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A quantile-based analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 49870–49883.
Babu, TSA., & Kaechele, H. (2015). Dichotomy in carbon dioxide emissions: The case of India. Climate and Development, 7(2),165–174.
Birdsall, N. (1992), Another look at population and global warming. Population, Health, and Nutrition Policy Research working paper No. WPS 1020. Washington, DC: World Bank
Blanford, G. J. (2009). Investment strategy for climate change. Energy Economics, 31, 27 e36
Chebbi, H.E., Olarreaga, M., & Zitouna, H. (2011). Trade openness and CO2 emissions in Tunisia. Middle East Development Journal, 3(1), 29-53.
Chen, J., Wang, B., Huang, S., & Song, M. (2020). The influence of increased population density in China on air pollution. Science of Total Environment. 735, 139456.
Dietz, T., & Rosa, E. A. (1994). Rethinking the environmental impacts of population, affluence and technology. Human Ecology Review, 1(2), 277-300.
Friedlingstein, P., Jones, M., O'sullivan, M., Andrew, R., Hauck, J., Peters, G. D.,& Bakker O (2019). Global carbon budget 2019. Earth System Science Data, 11(4), 1783-1838
Gyamfi, A., Onifade, S. T., Nwani, C., & Bekun, F. V. (2022). Accounting for the combined impacts of natural resources rent, income level, and energy consumption on environmental quality of G7 economies: A panel quantile regression approach. Environmental Science & Pollution Research. Volume 29, 2806-2818. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15756-8
Hanif, I., & Gago-de-Santos, P. (2017). The importance of population control and macroeconomic stability to reducing environmental degradation: An empirical test of the environmental Kuznets curve for developing countries. Environmental Development, 23(3),1–9
International Energy Agency. (2019). Global Energy and CO2 Status Report 2019 – Analysis IEA. http://www.iea.org
Im, K.S., Pesaran, M.H., & Shin, Y. (2003). Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. Journal of Econometrics. 115, Issue 1, 53–74.
Jiang, C., & Ma, X. (2019). The impact of financial development on carbon emissions: A global perspective. Sustainability, 11, (19) 5241.
Kizilkaya, O. (2017). The impact of economic growth and foreign direct investment on CO2 emissions: The case of Turkey. Turkish Economic Review, 4(1), 106-118.
León, C.J., Arana, J.E., Alemán, A.H. (2014). CO2 emissions and tourism in developed and less developed countries. Applied Economics Letters, 21(16), 1169-1173
Liddle, B. (2015). What are the carbon emissions elasticities for income and population? Bridging STIRPAT and EKC via robust heterogeneous panel estimates. Global Environmental Change, 31, 62–73
Machado, J. A., & Silva, J. S. (2019). Quantiles via moments. Journal of Econometrics, 213(1),145-173.
Mamun, A., Sohag, K., Mia, A.H., Uddin, G.S., & Ozturk, I. (2014). Regional differences in the dynamic linkage between CO2 emissions, sectoral output and economic growth. Renewable and sustain. Energy Review. 38, 1–11.
Morrow, W.R., Hasanbeigi, A., Sathaye, J., & Xu, T. (2014). Assessment of energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction potentials in India’s cement and iron and steel industries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65,131–141.
Nwani, C. (2021). Taking Venezuela back to the sustainability path: The role of financial development and economic integration in low‐carbon transition. Natural Resources Forum 45( 1), 37-62 . Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Nwani, C., Effiong, E. L., Okpoto, S. I., & Okere, I. K. (2021). Breaking the carbon curse: The role of financial development in facilitating low-carbon and sustainable development in Algeria. African Development Review, 33(4) Doi:10.1111/1467-8268.12576 1-16.
Ohlan, R.P. (2015). The impact of population density, energy consumption, economic growth and trade openness on CO2 emissions in India. Natural Hazards , 79, 1409–1428.
Omoke, P. C., Nwani, C., Effiong, E. C., Evbuomwan, O. O., & Emenekwe, C. C. (2020). The impact of financial development on carbon, non-carbon and total ecological footprint in Nigeria: new evidence from asymmetric dynamic analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27, 21628-21646.
O’Neill, B. C., Kriegler, E., Riahi, K., Ebi, K. L., Hallegatte, S., Carter,& T. R. van Vuuren, D. P. (2014). A new scenario framework for climate change research: The concept of shared socioeconomic pathways. Climate. Change, 122, 387–400.
Pastpipatkul, P., & Panthamit, N. (2011). The impact of population on carbon dioxide emissions: Provincial panel evidence from Thailand. Thailand Economic Society, 3, 258–267
Pesaran, M. H. (2015). Testing weak cross-sectional dependence in large panels. Econometric reviews, 34(6-10), 1089-1117.
Pesaran, M. H. (2007). A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 22, 265–312.
Pesaran, M.H. (2004). General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels. University of Cambridge, USC and IZA Bonn. Discussion Paper IZA DP No. 1240. Pp.1-42
Rahman, M.M., Saidi, K.,& Ben Mbarek, M. (2020). Economic growth in South Asia: The role of CO2 emissions, population density and trade openness. Heliyon , 6, (5). Doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03903
Rahman, M.M., & Vu, X.-B. (2020b). The nexus between renewable energy, economic growth, trade, urbanisation and environmental quality: A comparative study for Australia and Canada. Renewable. Energy, Elsevier, 155(C), 617–627.
Sarkodie, S. A., Owusu, P. A., & Leirvik, T. (2020). Global effect of urban sprawl, industrialization, trade and economic development on carbon dioxide emissions. Environmental Research Letters, 15(3), doi/:10.1088/1748-9326/ab7640
Sehrawat, M., Giri, A. K., & Mohapatra, G. (2015). The impact of financial development, economic growth and energy consumption on environmental degradation: Evidence from India. Managementof Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 26, 666–682.
Shahbaz, M., Tiwari, A. K., & Nasir, M. (2013). The effects of financial development on economic growth, coal consumption and trade openness on CO2 emissions in South Africa. Energy Policy, 61(Issue or number), 1452-1459.
Shi, Anqing. (2001). Population growth and global carbon dioxide emissions. In Paper presented at IUSSP Conference in Brazil . Development Research Group, The World Bank. June 2001 version. [email protected]
Tamazian, A., Chousa, J. P., & Vadlamannati, K. C. (2009). Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: Evidence from BRIC countries. Energy Policy, 37, 246–253.
United Nations (2019). World Population Prospects 2019(ST/ESA/SER A/423). Department of Economic and Social Affairs Highlights. wpp2019_highlilights.pdf
Wang, Y., Kang, L., Wu, X., & Xiao, Y. (2013). Estimating the environmental Kuznets curve for ecological footprint at the global level: A spatial econometric approach. Ecological Indicators, 34, 15–21.
Westerlund, J. (2007). New simple tests for panel cointegration. Economic Reviews. 24:3 297–316. Doi:10.1080/07474930500243019
Yang, L., Xia, H., Zhang, X., & Yuan, S. (2018). What matters for carbon emissions in regional sectors? A China study of extended STIRPAT model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 180(4), 595-602.
York, R., Rosa, E. A., & Dietz, T. (2003). STIRPAT, IPAT and IMPACT: Analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts. Ecological Economics, 46(3), 351-365.
Zafar, M. W., Zaidi, S. A. H., Sinha, A., Gedikli, A., & Hou, F. (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, 62(Issue or number), 427-436.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
