Abstract

This study examines the effect of FDI, economic growth, energy consumption, human capital and biocapacity on carbon emissions in selected West African countries over the period 1970–2017. Employing the long run cointegration estimators, the empirical results confirmed the existence of U-shaped and N-shaped pattern between the estimated variables on CO₂ emissions. However, the panel quantile estimates revealed that N-shaped exists only for high carbon emissions countries, but not in the middle and low carbon emissions nations. In addition, the results provide evidence of inverted U-shaped relationship between growth and CO₂ emissions and this point to the fact that the EKC hypothesis is valid for ECOWAS countries. The panel quantile causality results indicated that FDI, biocapacity, energy consumption and human capital cause carbon emissions in all the estimated quantiles. The study provided suggestions for policymaking towards reducing carbon emissions in the region.

摘要

本研究考察了 1970-2017 年期间外国直接投资、经济增长、能源消耗、人力资本和生物承载力对选定西非国家碳排放的影响。使用长期协整估计量，实证结果证实了 CO ₂排放的估计变量之间存在 U 型和 N 型模式。然而，面板分位数估计显示，N形仅存在于高碳排放国家，而不存在于中低碳排放国家。此外，结果提供了生长与 CO ₂之间倒 U 型关系的证据排放，这表明 EKC 假设对西非经共体国家有效。面板分位数因果关系结果表明，FDI、生物承载力、能源消耗和人力资本在所有估计分位数中导致碳排放。该研究为该地区减少碳排放的政策制定提供了建议。