Carbon Emissions and Growth: The Role of Trade and Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa

Authors

  • Zwakele Dlamini School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Ntokozo Nzimande School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Mduduzi Biyase School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa; & Department of Media Management, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran
  • Hlalefang Khobai School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Mathias Manguzvane School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Sanele Gumede School of Economics, University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.15940

Keywords:

Trade; Emissions; Growth; Urbanization; Environmental Kuznets Curve

Abstract

In this study, we employed a system generalised method of moments (GMM) to investigate the effect of trade, urbanization, and income on the environmental quality in a panel of 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, covering the period 1990-2018. Our findings demonstrated that urbanization does not have significant explanatory power over carbon emissions, whereas, trade positively and significantly drives emissions. Our findings further exhibit an inverted U-shape relationship between income and carbon dioxide emissions. This substantiates the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is therefore concluded that policymakers can focus on growth-promoting policies and should not adopt stringent conservative policies, which may hurt growth and delay the process of reaching a turning point in the Kuznets curve.

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Published

2024-09-07

How to Cite

Dlamini, Z., Nzimande, N., Biyase, M., Khobai, H., Manguzvane, M., & Gumede, S. (2024). Carbon Emissions and Growth: The Role of Trade and Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 14(5), 605–614. https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.15940

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 5 (2024)

Section

Articles

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