Electricity Consumption-economic growth-CO₂ Emissions nexus in sub-saharan Africa: Evidence from panel cointegration

This study explores the causal relationship among electricity consumption, economic growth and CO₂ emissions for a group of 14 sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries from 1980 to 2009 using panel cointegration and panel vector error correction modelling methods. The findings demonstrate that in the long run electricity consumption has a statistically significant positive impact on CO₂ emissions. The results also reveal that the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis exists in the SSA countries' case. The panel causality tests indicate that there is short-run unidirectional causality running from economic growth to CO₂ emissions and electricity consumption respectively. Simultaneously, there is long-run bidirectional causality between electricity consumption and economic growth, electricity consumption and CO₂ emissions, economic growth and CO₂ emissions. Depending on the results, relevant policies can be initiated without negatively affecting economic growth.