DECOUPLING GROWTH FROM CO 2 EMISSION IN SELECTED ECOWAS COUNTRIES
- Agboola Olayode
- ( paper pages. 1 - 30 )
Abstract
This study investigated the link between GDP, energy consumptionand CO 2 emission and examined the role of decoupling CO 2 fromGDP and energy consumption in reducing climate change in sixECOWAS countries. Using data on real GDP per capita, energyconsumption per capita, and CO 2 emission for Benin, Côte d’Ivoire,Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo between 1970 and 2015, panelautoregressive distributed lag (PARDL), the study found evidence ofa strong and positive link between CO 2 and energy and growth for allsix countries. Furthermore, the growth hypothesis was found to holdin the entire region in the long run while the conservation hypothesisheld in the short run. The main implication of these findings is thatthese countries are more amenable to conservation policies in theshort run. In the long run, however, attempts to conserve energyconsumption may harm growth. Increased decoupling of CO 2 fromenergy consumption was found to lead to higher energy intensity,thereby validating the energy rebound effect in these countries.However, increased decoupling of CO 2 from economic activity wasfound to reduce energy intensity in the entire region in the long run.It is recommended that the need to pursue greater growth in thesecountries ought to factor in the link between energy and growth andbetween energy and CO 2 emission as well as the limitation ofconservation as a reliable long-term strategy for curbing CO 2emission.
Citation
Agboola Olayode.
2019.
"DECOUPLING GROWTH FROM CO 2 EMISSION IN SELECTED ECOWAS COUNTRIES"
The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies,
61 (3): 1 - 30.
JEL Classification
Q43, Q56
