Effects of energy consumption, economic growth and population growth on carbon dioxide emissions: a dynamic approach for African economies (1990-2011)

It has been established fact that growing energy use, specifically in the emerging economies, is associated with adverse economic, climatic and ecological effects through carbon emissions. In this regard, the study seeks to analyze the dynamics of energy consumption, economic growth and population growth on carbon dioxide emissions using panel data (1990-2011) for 9 leading African economies (including Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Morocco, Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia respectively ) based on 2014 World Bank ranking.. To achieve its objectives the study employed panel data techniques such as IPS (1997) panel unit-root test, Pedroni (1997, 1999, and 2000) panel co-integration test, Kao and Chian (2000) panel dynamic least squares (DOLS) model, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (2012) panel causality test. The results indicated that energy consumption is the most important factor contributing to environmental pollutions and that the African economy is very much unlikely to attain EKC turning point in the long-run. The paper recommends that Africa’s energy policy (specifically the panel’s energy policy) should be geared towards improving energy consumption efficiency rather than reducing energy consumption so as not to adversely affect development