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CO2 emission thresholds for inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa

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Abstract

We provide policy-relevant critical masses beyond which, increasing CO2 emissions negatively affects inclusive human development. This study examines how increasing CO2 emissions affects inclusive human development in 44 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000–2012. The empirical evidence is based on fixed effects and Tobit regressions. In order to increase the policy relevance of this study, the dataset is decomposed into fundamental characteristics of inclusive development and environmental degradation based on income levels (low income versus (vs.) middle income); legal origins (English common law vs. French civil law); religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam); openness to sea (landlocked vs. coastal); resource-wealth (oil-rich vs. oil-poor) and political stability (stable vs. unstable). All computed thresholds are within policy range. Hence, above these thresholds, CO2 emissions negatively affect inclusive human development.

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Notes

  1. This has motivated a recent stream of African inclusive development literature in the light of sustainable development goals (Afutu-Kotey et al. 2017; Bongomin et al. 2018; Gosavi 2018; Hubani and Wiese 2018; Issahaku et al. 2018; Minkoua Nzie et al. 2018; Muthinja and Chipeta 2018).

  2. The EKC hypothesis postulates that in the long term, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita income and environmental degradation.

  3. The 44 countries are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Democratic. Republic., Congo Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

  4. While the motivations for the choice of fundamental features have been postulated in Section “Intuition for comparative economic development”, in Section “Data and methodology” we discuss the selection criteria for the fundamental characteristics.

  5. There are four main World Bank income groups: (i) high income, $12,276 or more; (ii) upper middle income, $3976–$12,275; (iii) lower middle income, $1006–$3975 and (iv) low income, $1005 or less.

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The author is indebted to the editor and reviewers for constructive comments.

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Correspondence to Simplice A. Asongu.

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Responsible editor: Nicholas Apergis

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5 Definitions of variables
Table 6 Summary statistics (2000–2012)
Table 7 Correlation matrix
Table 8 Categorisation of countries

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Asongu, S.A. CO2 emission thresholds for inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26005–26019 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2626-6

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