Energy consumption and environmental sustainability" Evidence of CO2 Emission" (1980-2020)

Abstract

Rapid economic growth has led to the current modern world facing a serious threat of climatic change, which has a negative impact on human socioeconomic condition. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and other energy sources are among the major causes of climate change. Due to environmental degradation, environmental issues have become a focal point of discussion in both emerging and developed economies due to environmental deterioration. This adds to concerns about climate change and global warming, which are mostly caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Natural factors (continental movements, volcanic activity, solar radiation, and ocean currents) and direct and indirect human actions, which affect the global atmospheric composition and variability of the natural climate, are frequently linked to these changes. However the availability of data is the one that made me use the period 1980 to 2020 with Panel data for twenty-seven African countries which is used in this study. Those countries Include: South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Togo, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mali, Gabon, Djibouti, Senegal, Cameroon, Algeria, Angola, and Egypt Arab rep. over the time period of 1980 to 2020 to run panel model with country fixed effect. These countries were chosen because of their high greenhouse gas emissions, modern economic growth in comparison to developed countries, and limited energy supplies. The World Development Indicators Database provided the data for this study. The empirical investigation for 1980-2020 periods, based on the fixed effects estimation, suggests positive per capita energy consumption in relation to CO2 emission in environmental sustainability. The results revealed that the degree of industrialization in the country has a positive relation with the CO2 emission due to the fossil fuel consumption and these fuels are emitting a lot of smoke hindering the environmental sustainability. Since the objective of the environmental sustainability policy is not to slow down the economic growth or to reduce the production of certain sector, it is important it allows the wider range of innovative technological solution for environmental issues like usage of renewable clean energy sources in energy sector of economy and usage of energy efficient appliances in given country. One of the important benefits for the countries under this study would be to reduce the dependence on energy imports especially fossil fuels, lower greenhouse gas emission, increase employment in the energy sector and improve innovation in the non-polluting industries. These policies could help to increase their energy efficiency to minimize the energy consumption in general, which in turn reduce their environmental degradation due to higher economic activity and hence environmental sustainability could be achieved.