Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2023.2180412
The impact of forestation and renewable energy utilisation on environmental efficiency in Africa
Nelson Amowine
Abstract
Achieving carbon neutrality is a tedious challenge confronting
African countries that have witnessed mounting environmental
degradation. Renewable energy consumption (REC) and forestation
play a critical role in dealing with the situation. Therefore, to
address this concern, this study assesses the dynamic energy or
environmental efficiency of 43 sampled African countries by proffering
a new dynamic meta-frontier DEA model from 2010 to 2018.
The bootstrap truncation regression model investigates the influence
of forestation and REC on environmental efficiency in Africa.
The dynamic environmental efficiency of the 43 concerned African
countries is low (0.59), indicating vast room for improvement. The
heterogeneity of dynamic environmental efficiency across the
income groups is evident. The upper-middle-income group (UMIG)
had the best performance, followed by the low-middle-income
group (LMIG) and the low-income group (LIG). The technology gap
ratio also confirmed the existence of a huge gap across the income
groups in Africa. The bootstrap truncation regression results confirmed
a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and
dynamic environmental efficiency in Africa. Forestation and REC
positively correlate to dynamic CO2 emission and energy efficiency
in Africa. In contrast, financial development is negatively associated
with CO2 emissions and Africa’s energy efficiency. The study’s findings
will aid the sampled African countries in their quest to attain
carbon neutrality, thereby promoting sustainability on the African
continent.
Keywords
Environmental efficiency; carbon neutrality; forestation; REC; dynamic meta-frontier DEA; Africa
Hrčak ID:
306540
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2023.
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