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Nature's safecrackers: Decoding substitutability and protecting natural capital in innovation ecosystems SSA and MENA regions
Abstract
The innovation ecosystems in economies dependent on natural resources use these assets as fundamental capital to promote development and economic growth. Ensuring the lasting sustainability of these economies represents a difficult challenge, especially in a context of limited and irreplaceable natural capital. This study explores indicators of natural capital protection (environmental quality, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, and cultural and social values) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA), two regions dependent on natural resources. A new panel quantile estimation technique is applied to panel data covering 59 countries from 2019 to 2023. The results indicate that, in SSA economies, lower levels of these indicators contribute positively to higher levels of natural capital protection. In the MENA economies, only higher levels of environmental quality and cultural and social values contribute positively to higher levels of natural capital protection. The critical implications arising from this study emphasize the urgent need to implement strategies aimed at safeguarding natural capital in economies heavily dependent on it. These strategies include resilient urban development, investment in climate resilient infrastructure, The strategies include resilient urban development, investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, recognition and valorization of environmental services, attention to modern renewable energy technologies, environmental education, greater consideration of the balance between environmental sustainability and human well-being by governments, and recognition of the impacts of globalization on environmental sustainability and human development. The uniqueness of this study lies in its pioneering approach to the pressing issues of protecting natural capital in natural resource-dependent economies. It is a pioneer in analyzing several countries in two regions regarding synergies between protecting natural capital and its indicators in economies dependent on natural resources.
This paper analysed the causal link between education, employment, renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions in Africa, where there is scant evidence. Relying on panel data obtained from the World Development Indicators for thirty-two African countries covering a period of 19 years, and five panel rigorous regression models, we found that renewable energy, investment in education, school enrolment, net national income per capita, and employment had negative and significant effects on carbon emission, thus increasing these predictors would result in significant reduction in carbon emission in Africa. We identified a bidirectional causality between carbon emissions and net national income per capita, education expenditure and renewable energy consumption, and carbon emissions and employment. Our findings suggest that investment in education, renewable energy, and employment are relevant in mitigating carbon emissions in Africa. We recommend African governments to invest heavily in education, improve school enrolment, environmental education, renewable energy and employment provision to mitigate carbon emissions.
Graphical Abstract
The sustainability of the environment debate cannot be addressed without considering the type of energy to use. The pace at which the world is industrializing, globalizing, and developing economically has prompted many researchers to investigate the kind of energy required to preserve the environment. In this regard, this study employs the mediation model to assess renewable energy's direct and indirect effects on carbon emissions through globalization. The data for the study is from 1990 to 2020. The study's findings showed that while renewable energy has no appreciable impact on trade openness, it directly and negatively affects carbon emissions. However, foreign direct investment has a direct and significant positive effect on carbon emissions, while trade openness has no significant effect. The indirect result revealed that renewable energy through foreign direct investment has a negative effect on carbon emissions; however, renewable energy through trade openness has a positive effect on carbon emissions. Policymakers are encouraged to restrict the trade sector to reduce the trading of high-emission technologies.
This paper examines the linear effects of economic growth on carbon emissions and their impact on mortality and morbidity rates in specific regions sub-Sahara Africa, Middle-East and North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (SSA, MENA, ECA). By analyzing longitudinal data for 82 panels over 30 years, we investigate the relationships between energy usage, per capita GDP, life expectancy, and carbon emissions. Our estimation results show positive correlations between energy use, carbon production, and life expectancy in both the combined sample and individual regions. However, death rate has a negative relationship with carbon production in the combined sample, MENA, and SSA regions. Per capita GDP positively influences carbon emissions and life expectancy in the combined sample and ECA, MENA, and SSA regions. We also identify asymmetric relationships between per capita GDP and carbon production, with evidence supporting the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for the combined and ECA samples, and an N-trajectory for SSA. These findings emphasize the importance of region-specific approaches to sustainable development, considering the unique environmental and economic challenges each region faces. Policymakers should consider our research insights when designing policies to mitigate the negative impacts of economic progress on the environment.
Measuring a country’s sustainable development by its gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient to capture the loss of capital that determines future human welfare. To address this, we propose the inclusive wealth index, which integrates biophysical quantities and monetary values of natural, human, and produced capital. We analyzed the level of Inclusive Wealth in 163 countries over the past 30 years to assess sustainable development goals (SDGs) going beyond GDP. Global wealth has suffered significant losses in natural capital, with the biased accumulation of capital assets leading to unsustainable and unequal development. In low-income countries, soaring population levels and biased capital investments exacerbate the depletion of natural capital. Our results underscore the critical role of natural capital and inclusive capital management in sustainable development. Policymakers can use this information to make capital investments in their economies and promote recovery from COVID-19 that aligns with the SDGs, the Paris Climate Agreement, and initiatives beyond GDP.
Structural transformation is a crucial prerequisite for inclusive and sustainable development. In this context, this study examines the influence of natural resource dependence on the transformation of industrial structure in a panel of 30 Sub-Saharan (SSA) economies from 1995 to 2019, taking into account the role of financial development. The empirical analysis relies on the newly developed bias-corrected method-of-moments estimator. The findings indicate that natural resource dependence leads to a reduction in the output contribution of the manufacturing and service industries. On the other hand, financial development through the institutions channel decreases the output value of extractive industries while increasing the output value of manufacturing and service industries, resulting in a net positive effect on the evolution of industrial structure away from extractive-based industrialization. Considering the complex multidimensional nature of financial development, further findings suggest that the depth and efficiency of financial systems are critical areas for deepening structural diversification in the sub-region. Additionally, the findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between per capita GDP and industrial structure transformation. These findings highlight that natural resource dependence inhibits structural transformation in SSA and emphasize the importance of enhancing the depth and efficiency of financial systems as part of strategies to break the resource curse.
This study seeks to explore the links between energy consumption and environmental quality in the wake of rapid urbanization in Africa with empirical insights from the cases of Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, and South Africa. These countries aside from being among the largest economies; are also among the leading energy producers and the most urbanized economies that emit the most carbon dioxide on the continent. Based on the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) panel ARDL estimator, the dynamics nexus between the variables was estimated vis-à-vis the short-run and long-run coefficients using relevant sample data between 1990 and 2015. The study further examines the channels of causality between the variables while also testing for the validity of the popular Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the panel of countries. The results confirm that the rising level of energy use significantly exacerbates the level of carbon emission among the countries in the study while growing urbanization significantly creates a negative impact on carbon emission. In addition, an increase in per capita income improves the environmental quality but the doubling of income per capita triggers environmental degradation, thus invalidating the EKC hypothesis in the examined panel economies. In essence, these countries have not reached the supposed turning point at which income growth can yield desirable emission mitigation effects. Following the findings, essential recommendations are provided for policymakers in the main text.
Air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting lower-income groups, who tend to be more exposed and vulnerable. This study documents the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and poverty in 211 countries and territories. Using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2021 revised fine particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, we show that globally, 7.3 billion people are directly exposed to unsafe average annual PM2.5 concentrations, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, 716 million of the world’s lowest income people (living on less than $1.90 per day) live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Air pollution levels are particularly high in lower-middle-income countries, where economies tend to rely more heavily on polluting industries and technologies. These findings are based on high-resolution air pollution and population maps with global coverage, as well as subnational poverty estimates based on harmonized household surveys.
Incorporating the interdependencies between water, energy and food (WEF) within an integrated approach of planning and management could help nations worldwide to address sustainability concerns. This is a topic of great importance for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where water is a very limited resource. In this study, we develop an analytical framework to analyze the water-energy-food nexus in the MENA region to inform the formulation of integrated strategies for water, energy and food activities. Our approach is based on an integrated assessment model for the MENA region, which explicitly represents WEF sectors within an economic framework, in tandem with a set of relevant scenarios addressing three key dimensions (socioeconomics, climate and water-management). Using this framework, our study analyzes the current and projected status of water resources in the region, and the potential implications for the agriculture and electricity sectors. Our scenarios demonstrate that water scarcity worsens by the end of the 21st century in most MENA countries, mostly due to growing demands. The impacts of growing scarcity on agriculture are significant, with production projected to drop by 60 percent by 2050 in some countries. On the other hand, and to a lesser extent, water-saving technologies and fuel-switching in the power sector play a key role in mitigating the effects of water scarcity on electricity generation in some parts of the MENA region. Our analysis then underscores the need to reduce the dependence of MENA’s agricultural and energy sectors on water, and transition to renewable energies to reduce water scarcity.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the region most vulnerable to climate change and related hydro-meteorological risks. These risks are exacerbated in rapidly expanding urban areas due to the loss and degradation of green and blue spaces with their regulating ecosystem services. The potential of nature-based solutions (NBSs) to mitigate hydro-meteorological risks such as floods is increasingly recognised in Europe. However, its application in urban areas of SSA still needs to be systematically explored to inform and promote its uptake in this region. We conducted a multidisciplinary systematic review following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol to establish the general patterns in the literature on NBSs and hydro-meteorological risk mitigation in SSA. We searched scientific journal databases, websites of 12 key institutions and 11 NBS databases and identified 45 papers for analysis. We found at least 1 reported NBS in 71 % of urban areas of SSA across 83 locations. Of the papers, 62 % were clustered in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria only, while the most studied cities were Dar es Salaam and Kampala. Moreover, 66 NBS practices were identified, most of which (n=44) were for flood mitigation. With only Mozambique (n=2) among the most at-risk countries reporting NBSs, we found that NBSs are implemented where risks occur but not where they are most severe. Mangrove restoration (n=10) and wetland restoration (n=7), reforestation (n=10) and urban forests (n=8), and agroforestry (n=3) and conservation agriculture (n=2) were the most common NBS practices identified for floods, extreme-heat and drought mitigation, respectively. Traditional practices that fit the definition of NBSs, such as grass strips and stone bunds, and practices that are more popular in the Global North, such as green roofs and green façades, were also identified. These NBSs also provided ecosystem services, including 15 regulatory, 5 provisioning and 4 cultural ecosystem services, while 4 out of every 5 NBSs created livelihood opportunities. We conclude that the reported uptake of NBSs for hydro-meteorological risks in SSA is low. However, there could be more NBSs, especially at the local level, that are unreported. NBSs can help SSA address major development challenges such as water and food insecurity and unemployment and help the sub-region progress towards climate-resilient development. Therefore, we recommend that NBSs be mainstreamed into urban planning and knowledge exchange opportunities between SSA and Europe and that other regions be explored to promote uptake.
In line with the global trend, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been growing vulnerable to the direct and indirect health effects of climate change including death tolls due to climatological disasters and diseases sensitive to climate change since the industrial revolution. Regarding the limited capacity of MENA countries to adapt and respond to these effects, and also after relative failures of the previous negotiation in Glasgow, in the upcoming COP27 in Egypt, the heads of the region's parties are determined to take advantage of the opportunity to host MENA to mitigate and prevent the worst effects of climate change. This would be achieved through mobilizing international partners to support climate resilience, a major economic transformation, and put health policy and management in a strategic position to contribute to thinking and action on these pressing matters, at least to avoid or minimize the future adverse consequences.
This study empirically tests whether there is evidence of convergence in ecological footprint among 189 countries for the period 1990–2017. Using the novel log (t) regression model that accommodates likely transitional heterogeneity in the panel, the results provide evidence for the divergence of ecological footprint (EF) for the world sample. A similar empirical outcome was obtained for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Europe and Central Asia (ECA), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Nevertheless, the study found three convergence clubs for the world sample, SSA, ECA, and LAC, while two clubs were found for EAC and MENA. Further empirical results from the ordered logit and probit model suggest initial EF and natural resource utilization are the most critical driver of club membership in SSA. Since we established three club formations, the study recommends different environmental protection policies should be adopted for the countries in these convergence clubs. It is also important for SSA governments to implement strong environmental regulations in respect of the exploitation of resources.
Environmental sustainability is a burning fact worldwide, especially in developing nations. Equitable economic development, environmental protection, energy efficiency and security have been placed at the apex of economic discussant and policy formulation. This paper establishes the relationship between trade and environmental quality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Following the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory, we investigate the existence of an inverted U-shape correlation between income per capita growth and nitrous oxide (N2O), agricultural methane (ACH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to ascertain the presence of EKC. We also analyze how trade variables, income per capita growth, energy intensity, foreign direct investment, human capital, and CO2 emissions are related. The results show that trade significantly increases N2O, ACH4, and CO2 emissions for the overall sample of SSA and its income groups [Upper-Middle-Income Countries (UMIC), Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), and Low-Income Countries (LIC)] using a panel GMM. This paper concludes that reducing emissions is feasible in the future as shown by the existence of the EKC, and trade has a consistently negative impact on the environment in SSA countries, regardless of wealth level. On the policy note, the study suggested that domestic trade liberalization and foreign ownership in the economy play a detrimental role, and thus industrialization has to ensure energy efficiency and energy security.
Carbon neutrality is a 21st-century priority area, with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries making significant investments in renewable energy and climate mitigation initiatives to attain it. However, carbon neutrality research in the MENA region is under-developed, particularly when considering the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and effectiveness of government. To address this gap, this research investigates the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and government effectiveness toward the MENA region’s carbon neutrality goal. We implemented heterogeneous and second-generation panel data techniques that are resilient to cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity to panel data spanning 16 MENA countries from 1996 to 2018. We discovered that MENA data are cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, and cointegrated. We found that government effectiveness and renewable energy bring carbon neutrality closer, but economic growth initially delays it. We detected Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the MENA region, specifically in the High-Income Countries. Although there were signs of EKC in the Middle-Income Countries, this was not significantly validated. Finally, we found a one-way causal link from government effectiveness and renewable energy to carbon neutrality but a feedback mechanism between economic growth and carbon neutrality in the MENA region. As a result of these findings, it is recommended that the MENA region’s policymakers prioritize renewable energies and improve the effectiveness of government to drive economic growth toward the carbon neutrality goal.
The environment has been delivering ecological balance through mitigation and ultraviolet ray protection. Nevertheless, human interactions have been creating unfavorable changes on environmental quality. Accordingly, based on a panel data (1996-2018), this study inspected evidence for N-shaped EKC across 41 SSA countries classified under three income categories. By extending the EKC hypothesis and using the three-stage simultaneous equation modeling, the study also estimated the direct and indirect effects of the three governance indices on environmental quality in the region. Consequently, the study confirmed N-shaped EKC only in the upper middle-income SSA countries. Furthermore, in the lower-income SSA countries, while the institutional governance index has a direct negative effect on environmental degradation, government effectiveness has an indirect negative effect on GHG emissions through renewable energy consumption. In the lower-middle-income SSA countries, while economic governance has a direct positive effect, political and institutional governances have a direct negative effect on environmental degradation. Here, also, political stability and the absence of violence have an indirect negative effect on GHG emission through income. In the upper middle-income SSA countries, control of corruption and the regulatory quality of the government has an indirect negative effect on environmental quality through income and renewable energy consumption, respectively. The inconclusive effects of the three governance indices on environmental quality might be the result of income heterogeneity across the region. Thus, policy prescriptions based on understanding the heterogeneous effects of governance indices within the three income groups might help to prove environmental quality in the region.
The preservation of our planet’s decreasing biodiversity is a global challenge. Human attitudes and preferences toward animals have profound impacts on conservation policies and decisions. To date, the vast majority of studies about human attitudes and concern toward animals have focused largely on western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (i.e., WEIRD) populations. In order to mitigate biodiversity loss globally, an understanding of how humans make decisions about animals from multicultural perspectives is needed. The present study examines familiarity, liking and endorsement of government protection amongst six broad cultural groups living in Qatar for five threatened animal species indigenous to the Arabian Gulf. Our findings highlight similarities and differences across cultures toward animals. Overall, familiarity did not predict endorsement for government protection after liking was accounted for. Liking, however, emerged as an important predictor of endorsement for government protection across cultures, although the degree of animal liking varied culturally. WEIRD and South East Asian participants showed similar and more positive attitudes toward animals compared to the other groups. Participants from the Arabian Gulf, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia responded similarly toward the animals. Interestingly, the Arabian Gulf group demonstrated significantly less liking and protection endorsement for animals, including those animals which play an important role in their culture. This research highlights intriguing avenues for future research and points to liking as a possible universal human attitude toward animals that influences decision making about conservation across all cultures while suggesting applications for improving education.
Sub-Saharan Africa receives large investments in biodiversity conservation, and if these investments can be concentrated on the highest threats to biodiversity, the benefits to conservation from the investments would increase. Yet there is no available prioritization of the many direct threats to biodiversity to inform organizations developing sub-Saharan or sub-regional conservation strategies. Consequently, regional investments by funders of biodiversity conservation such as international conservation organizations, foundations, and bilateral and multilateral donors may be suboptimal. The objective of this study was to determine what are the highest direct threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa and its sub-regions. To do this, we collected threat data using standardized IUCN threat categories from a Delphi consensus of sub-Saharan Africa biodiversity experts, known threats to IUCN Red-listed sub-Saharan African species, and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans from 40 sub-Saharan African countries. After averaging the threat ranking from the three sources, the highest threats were: (1) annual and perennial crops (non-timber); (2) fishing and harvesting aquatic resources in marine and freshwater areas; (3) logging and wood harvesting in natural forests; and (4) hunting and collecting terrestrial animals. The highest-ranked sub-regional threats were hunting in Central Africa and agriculture in East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Aligning biodiversity investments to address these threats and tailoring activities to reflect local socio-ecological contexts would increase the conservation of biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa.
Substitutability of natural capital by human-made capital would seem to be limited. When human-made capital substitutes natural capital, there are currently commonly long-lasting negative impacts of such substitutions on constituents of natural capital. Long-lasting negative impacts on natural capital can be considered at variance with justice between the generations. In view thereof, there is a case to define (environmental) sustainability as keeping natural capital intact for transferral to future generations. A major problem for such conservation regards natural resources generated by geological processes (virtually non-renewable resources), especially regarding geochemically scarce elements. Substitution of virtually non-renewable resources by generating equal amounts of renewables has been proposed as a way to conserve natural capital. However, renewables substituting for fossil carbon compounds are currently associated with negative impacts on constituents of natural capital to be transferred to future generations. The same holds for the substitution of widely used geochemically scarce virtually non-renewable copper by abundant resources generated by geological processes. Though current negative impacts of substitutions on natural capital can be substantially reduced, their elimination seems beyond the scope of what can be achieved in the near future. The less strict “safe operating space for humanity”, which has been used in “absolute sustainability assessments” is, however, not a proper alternative to keeping natural capital intact for transferral to future generations.
Conflicts are socio-political pressures that alter wellbeing, social structure, and economic sustenance. However, very limited studies have assessed the long-term impact of conflicts on environmental sustainability. This study investigates the role of internal and external conflicts on ecological footprint in the Middle East and North African countries (MENA) over the period 1995–2016. Here, we test whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is valid for MENA countries during the period of internal and external conflicts—characterized by energy disasters and deteriorating income levels. Using robust econometric tools based on 12 MENA countries, the results show that income growth has negative impact with evidence of inherent heterogeneity across quantile distribution of ecological footprint. However, the positive impact of the square term of income decreases ecological footprint, thus, confirming U-shaped relationship between income and environmental indicator across MENA countries. The results further show that excessive energy consumption is attributed to a rising level of urbanization, while increase in conflicts stimulates environmental degradation. These findings are essential for effective conflict resolution and environmental policies across conflict-prone countries.
Sub-Saharan African countries are known to be bedeviled with some challenges hindering the economic development. Meanwhile, some of these issues have not been exhaustively investigated in the context of the region. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the implications of government effectiveness, availability of natural resources, and security threats on the regions’ economic development. Yearly data, spanning from 2007 to 2020, was converted from low frequency (yearly) to high frequency (quarterly) and utilized. Data analysis was conducted using Dynamic heterogeneous panel level estimators (PMG and CS-ARDL). Findings show that while PMG estimator confirms a long-run causal effect of governance, natural resources, and security threats on economic development, only natural resources show a short-run causal effect with economic development, while the CS-ARDL (model 2) confirms the significance of all the variables both in the long and short-run. Moreover, the ECT coefficients for both models were found to be statistically significant at less than 1% significance level, which indicates that the systems return back to equilibrium in case of a shock that causes disequilibrium, and in addition, reveals a stable long-run cointegration among the variables in the model. Finally, this study suggests that the policy makers in SSA countries should place more emphasis on improving governance, managing security challenges, and effectively utilizing rents from the natural resources, as all these have severe implications for the economic development of the region if not addressed.
Rapid urbanisation presents multiple opportunities, but also poses challenges for equitable distribution of gains from socio-economic developments. This systematic review explored the role of social inclusion within the urban sustainability agenda.
Sustainable urban developments were conceptualised as comprising environmental, spatial, social and economic perspectives; and social inclusion as entailing access to core services (healthcare) and resources (food). A search of five databases and grey literature returned 1,015 articles; 26 papers were included following screening using pre-determined criteria. Data was analysed thematically. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations were followed.
Most included studies were from North America and few were from Africa and Asia. More empirical than conceptual studies were found, and more focused on food than healthcare. Social inclusion was generally included within the urban sustainability but was often an autonomous component, rather than mainstreamed, within urban sustainability. Social inclusion was mostly related to multiple elements of sustainability, with the greatest focus on combinations of environmental, social and economic opportunities for under privileged groups. However, less consideration was given to gender, ethnicity and other aspects of intersectionality. Multiple theories contributed to transferability of lessons.
Key policy implications include prioritising the most vulnerable socially excluded populations, ensuring equal representation in urban planning, designing people-centred systems, building partnerships with communities, considering socio-cultural-political-economic contexts, and recognising both intended and unintended effects. More research is needed in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) on the role of social inclusion in achieving sustainable development, using cross-disciplinary approaches.
Global commitments to protected area expansion should prioritize opportunities to protect climate refugia and ecosystems which store high levels of irrecoverable carbon, as key components of an effective response to biodiversity loss and climate change. The United States and Canada are responsible for one‐sixth of global greenhouse gas emissions but hold extensive natural ecosystems that store globally‐significant above‐ and below‐ground carbon. Canada has initiated a process of protected area network expansion in concert with efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledged nature‐based solutions as a key aspect of climate change mitigation. The US, although not a party to global biodiversity conventions, has recently committed to protecting 30% of its extent by 2030 and achieving the UNFCCC Paris Agreement’s mitigation targets. The opportunities afforded by these dual biodiversity conservation and climate commitments require coordinated national and regional policies to ensure that new protected areas maximize biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation opportunities. We address how global commitments can best inform national policy initiatives which build on existing agency mandates for regional planning and species conservation. Previous analyses of global conservation priorities under climate change have been tenuously linked to policy contexts of individual nations and have lacked information on refugia due to limitations of globally available datasets. Comparison and synthesis of predictions from a range of recently‐developed refugia metrics allow such data to inform planning despite substantial uncertainty arising from contrasting model assumptions and inputs. A case study for endangered species planning for old‐forest‐associated species in the US Pacific Northwest demonstrates how regional planning can be nested hierarchically within national biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation strategies which integrate refugia, connectivity, and ecosystem carbon metrics to holistically evaluate the role of different land designations and where carbon mitigation and protection of biodiversity’s resilience to climate change can be aligned.
Background:
Protecting the health of citizens is a central aim of sustainable development plans, due to the effect of health on social and economic development. However, studies show that environment-related diseases adversely affect the health status of a people, and this situation is worse for African countries. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets have included reducing environment-related deaths since 2015. However, there is a lack of empirical findings focused on the effects of environmental quality on life expectancy in Africa.
Objectives:
The present study examined the impact of environmental quality on life expectancy in 24 African countries.
Methods:
Time-series data ranging from 2000 to 2016 was used and the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-dynamic fixed effect (DFE) model was employed to analyze the data.
Results:
The results confirmed that, in the long run, improvements in environmental quality significantly increased life expectancy in the studied African countries during the study period. A unit increment in environmental performance index (EPI) and ecosystem vitality (EV) increased the life expectancy of Africans by 0.137 and 0.1417 years, respectively.
Conclusions:
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical (econometric) study using a broad measurement (indicator) of environmental quality to investigate its impact on life expectancy in African countries. The study recommends that the introduction of environmentally friendly economies (like renewable energy, land, water, and waste management), legal, socio-economic, demographic, and technological measures are essential to reduce environmental pollution and improve life expectancy in Africa.
Competing interests:
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Economists and ecologists have worked for decades on measuring sustainability by supplementing or adjusting traditional economic indicators such as GDP. Given the threats to humanity from climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss, it is vital to incorporate values of natural capital into national economic decision-making. This review focuses on how natural capital applications, historically applied from local to global scales, address national-scale concerns. However, natural capital data and accounts have been only partially developed in most countries, given a lack of common metrics and monetary values. Existing accounts are often incomplete in both the types of natural capital and ecosystems they include (e.g., water, land, different ecosystem types) and the values they measure (e.g., market vs. nonmarket values). While it is important to continue work to embed natural capital into national economic accounts, the need for practical tools to analyze environmental problems is more urgent. We review alternative options for incorporating natural capital into national-scale decision-making and make recommendations for countries where the data, capacity, and political will to conduct formal natural capital accounting are lacking.
Considering the need for environmental sustainability while ensuring economic growth and development by 2030, this study uses data on 123 developed and developing countries to examine factors that influence green growth. The empirical results show that economic development positively influences green growth. However, trade openness is detrimental to green growth. Regarding energy-related factors, we find energy consumption negatively affecting green growth, but renewable energy consumption significantly improves green growth. In further analysis, we find that the influence of these factors differs between developed and developing countries. The result implies that countries at a different development level will require different strategies in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. The results are robust to alternative identification strategies such as the System Generalised Method of Movement, which accounts for potential endogeneity.
Smallholder farmers struggle to achieve food security in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is urgently required to find appropriate practices for enhancing crop production while avoiding large increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in SSA. This review aims to identify common smallholder farming practices for enhancing crop production, to assess how these affect GHG emissions and to identify strategies that not only enhance crop production but also mitigate GHG emissions in SSA. To increase crop production and ensure food security, smallholder farmers usually expand agricultural land, develop water harvesting and irrigation techniques and increase cropping intensity and fertilizer use. These practices may result in changing carbon stocks and GHG emissions, potentially creating trade-offs between food security and GHG mitigation. Agricultural land expansion at the expense of forests is the most dominant source of GHG emissions in SSA. While water harvesting and irrigation can increase soil organic carbon, they can trigger GHG emissions. Increasing cropping intensity can enhance the decomposition of soil organic matter, thus releasing carbon dioxide. Increasing nitrogen fertilizer use can enhance soil organic carbon, but also leads to increasing nitrous oxide emissions. An integrated land, water and nutrient management strategy is necessary to enhance crop production and mitigate GHG emissions. Among the most relevant strategies found, agroforesty practices in degraded and marginal lands could replace expanding agricultural croplands. In addition, water management, via adequate rainwater harvesting and irrigation techniques, together with appropriate nutrient management should be considered. Therefore, a land-water-nutrient nexus (LWNN) approach will enable an integrated and sustainable solution to increasing crop production and mitigating GHG emissions. Various technical, economic and policy barriers hinder implementing the LWNN approach on the ground, but these may be overcome through developing appropriate technologies, disseminating them through farmer to farmer approaches and developing specific policies to address smallholder land tenure issues and motivate long-term investment.
Achieving zero hunger by 2030 often raises the issue of environmental protection or sustainable social development among policy makers due to the environmental footprint of intensifying agricultural production across the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has one of the fastgrowing populations with more than half of the global growth between now and 2050. The challenge now lies in feeding the ever-growing population that is exerting pressure on the limited available resources. Doubling the agricultural productivity of small-scale farmers by 2030 (SDG 2.3) remains a daunting task for researcher and policy makers to address on the continent that now relies much on imports of food. Exploitation of the untapped massive land resources for agricultural production poses threats to sustainability. However, the challenges of global warming cannot be left out of this discussion since it has direct impact on future productivity on the continent. Climate change that has been projected to mostly affect the poorer countries also present trials to the food system through increased diseases and weather extremes of floods and droughts. Questions are yet to be answered on which tradeoffs and synergies if any need to be made to achieve zero hunger in Africa by 2030. This synopsis critically breaks down the conflicts, tradeoffs and synergies of how a continent with such massive agricultural production potential can navigate sustainably to achieve zero hunger, self-sufficiency and exports prospects while conserving the environment and natural resources. Evident deployment of new and improved technologies especially advanced biotechnology tools will be critical in achieving zero hunger by 2030. The adaptation needs of the continent are broad including institutional, social, physical and infrastructural needs, ecosystem services and environmental needs, and financial and capacity uncertain impacts.
Natural capital protection is critical to humanity because biodiversity and ecosystem provide not only goods (e.g., food, energy, water) but also services (e.g., climate regulation, cultural amenities). The article discusses the performance on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for natural capital protection, by framing the green growth concept into four pillars (i.e. environmental quality, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, ecosystem and biodiversity protection, and cultural and social value). Natural capital protection is one of the four dimensions of the Green Growth Index developed by the Global Green Growth Institute to measure country performance in green growth transition. The indicators selected for natural capital protection are either SDG indicators or directly contributing to SDG targets. Benchmarked against sustainability targets for the SDGs, Aichi Biodiversity, and the Paris Climate Agreement, the performance scores directly measure the distance to achieving the SDGs. Because the indicators for natural capital protection have not been explicitly framed in other global green growth indices and benchmarked against sustainability targets, hence, the article fills in an important research gap. The results revealed that many regions are performing better in environmental quality and GHG emissions reduction, but struggling to improve the low performance in biodiversity and ecosystem protection as well as cultural and social values. Many countries in Asia and Oceania face an enormous challenge of improving performance in the share of Key Biodiversity Areas covered by protected areas and the potential level of soil biodiversity. If biodiversity loss due to deforestation and intensive farming will continue, the countries will lose the ability to achieve sustainability targets in reducing GHG emissions and environmental quality. The highest average performance scores for the regions are only about 80. Thus, there is still a significant gap in achieving sustainability targets (i.e. 100) in natural capital protection, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region.
This empirical study investigates the determinants of CO2 emission in 18 countries of the Middle East and North African region covering the period from 1971 to 2009. The analysis is based on a dynamic panel data model employing the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique. The potential determinants of carbon emissions identified are per capita gross domestic product, energy usage, energy consumption from fossil fuel, foreign direct investment, urbanization, industrial production, agricultural production and education level. The results show per capita gross domestic product, energy consumption based on fossil fuel, foreign direct investment and agriculture production have significant impact on the growth of carbon emissions in the region.
Under the banner of a "New Green Revolution for Africa," agricultural intensification programs aim to make smallholder agriculture more productive as well as "climate smart". As with Green Revolutions in Asia and Mexico, agricultural innovations (hybrid seeds, agronomic engineering, market linkages,and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides) are promoted as essential catalysts of agriculture-led economic growth. Intensification programs are now frequently linked to Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), which attempts to build resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while increasing crop yields. This article considers who and what is resilient in Africa’s Green Revolution. We report on a multi-season study of smallholder food producers' experiences with Rwanda’s Crop Intensification Program (CIP) and related policies that aim to commercialize subsistence agriculture while implementing CSA. . We suggest that there are fundamental limits to the climate resilience afforded by CSA and development efforts rooted in Green Revolution thinking. Our findings illustrate that such efforts foreground technology and management adjustments in ways that have reduced smallholder resilience by inhibiting sovereignty over land use, decreasing livelihood flexibility, and constricting resource access. We put forth that rural development policies could better promote climate-resilient livelihoods through: 1) adaptive governance that enables smallholder land use decision-making; 2) support for smallholder food producers’ existing agro-ecological strategies of intensification; 3) participatory approaches to visualize and correct for inequalities in local processes of social-ecological resilence Such considerations are paramount for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and building climate-resilient food systems.
Climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources increase the need to integrate sustainable development policies at both national and international levels to fit the demands of a growing population. In 2015 the United Nations (UN) established the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development with the aim of eradicating extreme poverty, reducing inequality and protecting the planet. The Agenda 2030 highlights the importance of biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems to maintain economic activities and the well-being of local communities. Nature Based Solutions (NBS) support biodiversity conservation and the functioning of ecosystems. NBS are increasingly seen as innovative solutions to manage water-related risks while transforming natural capital into a source of green growth and sustainable development. In this context, NBS could potentially contribute to the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting the delivery of bundles of ecosystem services together generating various social, economic and environmental co-benefits. However, to achieve the full potential of NBS, it is necessary to recognize the trade-offs and synergies of the co-benefits associated with their implementation. To this aim, we have adopted a system perspective and a multi-sectoral approach to analyse the potential of NBS to deliver co-benefits while at the same time reducing the negative effects of water-related hazards. Using the case study of Copenhagen, we have analysed the relationships between the co-benefits associated with the scenario of the restoration of the Ladegaardsaa urban river. Our hypothesis is that enhancing the understanding of the social, economic and environmental factors of the system, including mutual influences and trade-offs, could improve the decision-making process and thereby enhance the capability of NBS to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.
This paper proposes simple tests of error cross-sectional dependence which are applicable to a variety of panel data models, including stationary and unit root dynamic heterogeneous panels with short T and large N. The proposed tests are based on the average of pair-wise correlation coefficients of the OLS residuals from the individual regressions in the panel and can be used to test for cross-sectional dependence of any fixed order p, as well as the case where no a priori ordering of the cross-sectional units is assumed, referred to as and tests, respectively. Asymptotic distribution of these tests is derived and their power function analyzed under different alternatives. It is shown that these tests are correctly centred for fixed N and T and are robust to single or multiple breaks in the slope coefficients and/or error variances. The small sample properties of the tests are investigated and compared to the Lagrange multiplier test of Breusch and Pagan using Monte Carlo experiments. It is shown that the tests have the correct size in very small samples and satisfactory power, and, as predicted by the theory, they are quite robust to the presence of unit roots and structural breaks. The use of the test is illustrated by applying it to study the degree of dependence in per capita output innovations across countries within a given region and across countries in different regions. The results show significant evidence of cross-dependence in output innovations across many countries and regions in the World.
Growing concern about the seriousness of issues such as climate change has made the value of research on social and behavioral aspects of environmental problems clearer than ever. For authors studying environmental concern or attitudes, however, survey development can be a daunting task. A large number of scales measuring environmental concern have been developed, and it can be challenging to make informed decisions about which to use. To assist authors in navigating the literature, we present a review of existing scales, followed by two studies in which we examine the structural validity of five scales that are commonly implemented in this corpus and that adhere to classical test theory. These results have important implications for general issues with measurement in this area, and inform our recommendations for authors about key considerations when selecting and using environmental concern scales.
The concept of innovation ecosystems has become popular during the last 15 years, leading to a debate regarding its relevance and conceptual rigor, not the least in this journal. The purpose of this article is to review received definitions of innovation ecosystems and related concepts and to propose a synthesized definition of an innovation ecosystem. The conceptual analysis identifies an unbalanced focus on complementarities, collaboration, and actors in received definitions, and among other things proposes the additional inclusion of competition, substitutes, and artifacts in conceptualizations of innovation ecosystems, leading to the following definition: An innovation ecosystem is the evolving set of actors, activities, and artifacts, and the institutions and relations, including complementary and substitute relations, that are important for the innovative performance of an actor or a population of actors. This definition is compatible with related conceptualizations of innovation systems and natural ecosystems, and the validity of it is illustrated with three empirical examples of innovation ecosystems.
Based upon the quintuple helix model (QHM), this study explores whether the differences in firms' emission reduction effectiveness can be attributed to the five institutional helices related to educational system, economic development, political–legal system, cultural orientation, and the natural capital. Using a set of listed European firms for the 2015–2020 period, we show that firms with better emission reduction effectiveness operate in nations with more public educational expenditure and scientific production, more extensive economic development, and better institutional and governance quality. Moreover, emission reduction strategies are more pronounced in firms located in countries characterized by less masculinity, individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance, and more long‐term orientation and indulgence. In addition, we find that companies with better emission reduction effectiveness are found in countries with more natural capital, characterized by a life in harmony with nature and employing the finite resources available in a sustainable and environmentally conscious manner. Moreover, employing a two‐stage model to identify the most relevant helix, we find that the political–legal system helix is the most pivotal in promoting firms' commitment to reducing environmental emissions.
Unlike previous studies, this paper specifically casts light on Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) oil exporters that desperately need to give a strong boost to renewable energy (RE) sources and export rather than uselessly burn their hydrocarbon resources, which support an overwhelming part of their economies. This paper extends the previous research by investigating the impact of oil revenues, innovation, financial development, and governance on renewable energy generation in eight oil‐rich MENA countries over the period 1996–2020 using the three‐stage least squares (3SLS) estimator, which is asymptotically more efficient than the two‐stage least squares (2SLS) employed in the similar‐scoped study of Bellakhal et al. (Energy Economics, 2019, 84, 104541). Furthermore, this study aims to detect structural changes in the econometric relationships between variables depending on a novel test with structural breaks proposed by Karavias and Tzavalis (Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 2014, 76, 391–407). The main findings indicate that oil rents negatively and significantly affect RE production in MENA oil exporters in general and in non‐GCC countries in particular. While renewable energy production in the GCC countries is positively and significantly affected by oil rents. Innovation‐led RE increases at a greater pace in the GCC countries than in their non‐Gulf counterparts. renewable energy production appears to be positively and significantly affected by financial development and governance in oil‐rich MENA countries.
One of the major global challenges that most affect the world economies are geopolitical risks triggered by tensions arising from exploiting natural resources. This paper attempts to study the influences of global governance indicators (voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, the rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and control of corruption) on natural resource rents in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Middle East & North Africa (MENA). We apply a new panel quantile estimation technique to panel data from 62 countries from 1996 to 2021. The results show, in general, in both MENA and SSA economies, there is a negative perception of the quality of governance. This is due to several factors, such as the absence of popular participation and transparency in decision-making, political instability, violence and terrorism, low government efficacy, low-quality regulation, lack of the rule of law, and high corruption in these regions. Thus, governance quality could be the driver of geopolitical risks in resource-rich economies. This study adds to the literature on geopolitical risk by assessing the impact of the perceived quality of governance on natural resource income in the MENA and SSA regions. Furthermore, it is the first study to compare two regions, with many countries, regarding the effects of global governance indicators on natural resource rents. In addition, it has been empirically demonstrated that the deterioration of the quality of government is associated with increased revenues from the exploitation of natural resources, which increases the likelihood of geopolitical tensions. Higher quality and more effective governance require less complex, more transparent, and less contradictory regulations, reducing the likelihood of geopolitical tensions. Practical and policy implications are drawn from the findings to help the MENA and SSA economies overcome geopolitical risks.
The capital approach is frequently used to model sustainability. A development is deemed to be sustainable when capital is not reduced. There are different definitions of sustainability, based on whether or not they allow that different forms of capital may be substituted for each other. A development that allows for the substitution of different forms of capital is called weakly sustainable. This article shows that in a risky world and a risk-averse society even under the assumptions of weak sustainability the circumstances under which different forms of capital may be substituted are limited. This is due to the risk-reducing effect of diversification. Using Modern Portfolio Theory this article shows under which conditions substitution of different forms of capital increases risk for future generations.
This study investigates the military outlays effects on human capital development in sub-Saharan Africa. By using panel data covering 44 countries from 1995 to 2020, a system Generalized Method of Moments is adopted as the estimation technique of a dynamic panel model. Findings show that military outlays have a significant positive effect on education spending in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the sensitivity analysis reports a mitigated result, highlighting the diversity of evidence on the ‘guns better than butter’ literature. While military outlays positively affect education expenditures in central and southern African sub-regions, they crowd-out the public spending allocated to education development in Sahel & Lake Chad area, western and eastern sub-regions. These results, therefore, suggest that policy makers should promote the approach which considers defense as a component of socioeconomic development by regulating the perfect ratio of military spending that meets their needs.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the extant literature on green innovation (GI), and more importantly, to provide future directions for GI research from the innovation ecosystem (IE) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review is conducted to summarize the status of current GI research, followed by content analysis to identify connectivity and crossovers between key concepts in the bodies of GI and IE literature. Then, the authors propose a green innovation ecosystem (GIE) framework and offer recommendations for future research on GI.
Findings
It is evident that the bodies of GI and IE literature overlap on the roles of external actors, and yet, there is scant research investigating GI activities from the IE perspective. Moreover, there are multiple directions worthy of future research applying the proposed GIE framework.
Originality/value
Though the concept of ecosystem has become pervasive in innovation management research, this study is one of the first works to introduce IE concepts and propositions in the GI research context. This paper provides new knowledge on GIEs and sets the basis for further investigation.
The United States and European Union (EU) face common challenges in managing natural capital and balancing conservation and resource use with consumption of other forms of capital. This paper synthesizes findings from 11 individual application papers from a special issue of Ecosystem Services on natural capital accounting (NCA) and their application to the public and private sectors in the EU and U.S. NCA is inherently a data-integration centered exercise, aiming to draw new insights by realigning environmental and economic data into a consistent framework. Drawing primarily on papers from the special issue and other key NCA literature, we identify lessons learned and gaps remaining for NCA’s development and application to decision making. In doing so, we identify eight key similarities and three major differences in NCA development, status, and application between the U.S. and EU. NCA can be highly policy relevant: special issue papers address critical issues including agriculture, water, conservation/land-use planning, climate, and corporate decision making. In both the U.S. and EU, further application is needed to drive demand for the accounts’ production. Based on these experiences, the U.S. and EU can be important leaders in cross-sector, international collaboration toward next-generation environmental economic accounts that advance global NCA practice.
An emerging industry refers to an aggregation of sectors and firms that create disruptive technologies and/or huge market potentials. Emerging industries based on technological innovation have increasingly become an important driving force for industrial competitiveness and economic growth. Although regional innovation systems (RISs) boost regional industries, it remains under-investigated whether and how RISs have differential impacts on different industries. Inspired by Pavitt's taxonomy of sectorial innovation, we propose four paradigms of industrial innovation in the context of emerging industries in China. We also empirically explore the effects of RISs on emerging industries, distinguishing the short-term effects from long-term ones. We present two key findings. First, RISs have generally contributed to the growth of emerging industries in China. Second, different components of RISs have varied impacts on different emerging industries. The results provide both theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence for policy-makers, suggesting that well-designed policies that leverage RIS formation and regional industry specific characteristics are vitally important for development of emerging industries. Our study makes three important contributions. First, it theorizes a conceptual framework on possible mechanism through which RISs promote emerging industries. Second, this study sheds empirical light on both short-term and long-term effects of individual RIS components on seven emerging industries in the Chinese context. Third, the paper proposes four paradigms of industrial innovation in emerging industries under the RIS framework.
Natural resource-abundant countries are generally dependent on resource revenue for their government budgets. Given the volatile prices of natural resources, such high dependence has led to the need for government revenue diversification, that is, shifting from resource sources to non-resource sources. Meanwhile, recent globalization helps promote economic growth, but it makes resource-dependent countries more vulnerable to fluctuations in resource prices, motivating them to diversify revenue sources for sound fiscal policies. Thus, examining the role of international trade in government revenue diversification is an important issue for resource-dependent countries, which has not been examined empirically in the literature. To fill the research gap, this study discusses this issue in resource-abundant countries. An autoregressive distributed lag model is used with panel data of 13 countries from 1996 to 2014. Estimations reveal a negative long-run association between government resource revenue and trade openness. Resource-abundant countries that promote trade liberalization tend to break down the resource-dependent structure of government revenues. Our analysis also shows a negative long-run association between government resource and non-resource revenues, which suggests the substitutability between the two government revenue sources. The promotion of government non-resource revenues would help governments receive the benefits of stable government revenues.
Despite the growing literature on natural resources, little is known about the effect of natural resources on industrialization, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by assessing how natural ressources affect the industrialization process in 27 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000–2016. To carry out our investigation, we used several estimation methods including Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effect (FE) and Generalized Moments Methods (GMM). The results show that there is a negative relationship between natural resource dependence and industrialization. A U-shaped relationship between natural resource dependence and industrialization is established. Furthermore, the disaggregation of natural resource rents shows that while oil rent, gas rent and mineral rent hamper the industrialization process, the effect of forest rent and coal rent on the industrialization is positive. Finally, we show that governance plays an important role in mitigating the negative impact of natural resources on industrialization. Thus, governance can be an effective way to break the resource curse in sub-Saharan African countries.
The 21st century brought many changes to the world. From witnessing a technological boom and awareness about the environment to renewable energy and conscious use of natural resources, the current century had offered a lot in the previous two decades. However, the question of natural resources being a curse or a blessing to the natural resource-producing economies is still unanswered and gathers many scholars' attention. The current study investigates the volatility of natural resources, oil and gold, and studies the impact of volatility in natural resource prices for resource-producing economies. The global market for crude oil has experienced significant downturns during the last two decades, the financial crisis of 2008 and the Covid 19 crisis of 2020, for instance. Compared to that, the global gold market has experienced relatively less impactful downturns during the same period. We explore how the volatility in oil and gold prices impact the growth of the resource-producing economies. The study is conducted on the top oil-producing countries and the top gold-producing countries on data from 2000 to 2020. The study finds that in the long run, the volatility in both oil and gold markets could be detrimental to the economic growth as measured by the GDP for the resource-producing economies. Our research also shows that the impact of the volatility in prices on the growth of economies is not consistent for all resource-producing economies in the short-term using PMG/ARDL methodology.
Management of food waste (FW) is a global challenge due to increasing population and economic activities. Presently, landfill and incineration are the keyways of FW management, while economical and environmental sustainability have been an issue. Therefore, the biological processes have been investigated for resource and energy recovery from FW. However, these biological approaches have certain drawbacks and cannot be a complete solution for FW management. Therefore, this review aims to offer a detailed and complete analysis of current available technologies to achieve environmental and economical sustainability. In this context, zero solid waste discharge for resource and energy recovery has been put into view. Corresponding to which several innovative technologies using integrated biological methods for resource and energy recovery from FW have been elucidated.
With huge natural gas(NG) reserves and current low (1%) share of non-hydro renewables in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), can natural gas offer SSA a low-carbon energy transition? Employing data from 1980 to 2017, this paper investigates the impact of NG consumption on SSA's CO2 emissions using data-driven nonparametric additive regression(NPAR) which can reveal both linear and nonlinear effects. Augmenting NPAR with translog production function(TPF) estimates of interfuel substitution elasticities and bias technological progress over sample period(advantage of TPF), we further provide evidence of the indirect effect of NG consumption on SSA's CO2 emissions through mechanism analysis. From the empirical results, the linear effect shows NG positively impact CO2 emissions while the nonlinear effect indicates a downward decreasing trend (meaning expansion in NG consumption will gradually lower CO2 emissions). Nonlinearly, urbanization and energy efficiency also show positive “inverted U-Shaped” and “downward slopping” respectively meaning sustainable urban energy and energy efficiency practices improvement can lead to CO2 reduction respectively in SSA. The reducing effect of NG consumption on CO2 (the nonlinear effect) is realized through the enhancement of positive bias technological progress of NG over coal and oil but not merely substitution of coal and oil for NG. Technological progress improvement in NG use will also reduce the positive linear effect of urbanization and energy efficiency on CO2 emissions of SSA. Oil is more likely to be substituted for NG than that of coal in SSA. The scenario analysis shows a total of 6.9%, 7.6% and 8.3% of energy conservation is realized in 2022, 2026 and 2030 with a corresponding CO2 reduction of 18.7%, 20.7% and 22.9% respectively for a continuous 10% investment in NG. Institutional, market-oriented and technology challenges hinder NG development among major producers in SSA. Based on the results, several policy measures are put forward to promote SSA's low-carbon energy transition.
How to improve environmental quality and achieve human development remains major sustainability issues, particularly in the MENA region (the Middle East and North Africa). Most of the empirical literature fails to consider human well-being and environmental quality together although these concepts are fundamentally similar in their concern for distributive justice. This inquiry uses panel data for 13 MENA countries over the period 1990–2016 to examine the association between human development and ecological footprint and test whether trade-off nexus holds between these two sustainability-based indicators. To increase the policy relevance of this inquiry, the MENA region is divided into two sub-groups of countries: seven oil exporting countries and six non-oil exporting countries. The highlights pointed out the presence of a strong trade-off between the ecological footprint and human well-being captured by human development index for the whole sample and across the two subsamples. The crucial role played by economic institutions may help the MENA countries to mitigate the trade-offs to achieve simultaneously both targets of human well-being and environmental protection. Our empirical insights have important implications for achieving human development sustainability through the pursuit of the individual SDG targets.
This study examines environmental convergence in ecological footprint and its sub-components in a region subjected to rapid degradation of environmental conditions and, where environmental conservation significantly remains unpopular in both government policy priorities and academic literature. This is expected to contribute to policy-shaping in the region in terms of sustainable development goals and global climate protocols. To this end, The study employs a sophisticated methodological approach (log t regression) that accounts for slope heterogeneity using a pool of inclusive environmental parameters to test convergence among different sub-components. Results show that ecological footprint and its sub-components do not converge as a whole and several clubs are determined for each sub-component except forest-land and built-up-land footprints. Given the importance of achieving sustainable development goals and struggling with environmental threats collectively, this study highlights the importance of differentiated liabilities for countries.