Mineral resources are indispensable in manufacturing clean energy equipment, and this technology is going through a flourishing era at the stake of climate change. However, the extraction of these mineral resources poses several environmental concerns. This article aims to evaluate the effects of mineral resources, energy intensity, urbanization, and economic development on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and test the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. For this purpose, this study sampled 33 African mineral resources endowed countries with available data from 1990 to 2015. The empirical analysis focused on the main panel and its subpanels—low income (LI), lower middle income (LMI), upper middle income (UMI) panels—to capture the income inequality effects. We employed the heterogeneous fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares models to generate robust and reliable long-run parameters. The estimation results suggest that mineral resources endowment worsens carbon diffusion in the panel countries, such as LI, LMI, and overall. Similarly, energy intensity increases CO₂ emissions for LMI, UMI and overall panels. As for urbanization, it has a bicephalous inference that harms the environment at the panel level of LI countries while it decarbonizes at the level of LMI, UMI, and overall panels. The LI, UMI, and overall panels support a U-shaped curve rather than an EKC. Moreover, CO₂ emissions have a feedback Granger causality relationship with all its determinants. The findings have useful policy insights for green policy.

矿产资源是制造清洁能源设备必不可少的，而这项技术正经历着与气候变化息息相关的繁荣时代。然而，这些矿产资源的开采带来了一些环境问题。本文旨在评估矿产资源、能源强度、城市化和经济发展对二氧化碳（CO ₂) 排放并检验环境库兹涅茨曲线 (EKC) 假设。为此，本研究从 1990 年到 2015 年对 33 个拥有可用数据的非洲矿产资源国家进行了抽样调查。实证分析侧重于主面板及其子面板——低收入 (LI)、中低收入 (LMI)、中高收入 ( UMI) 面板——捕捉收入不平等的影响。我们采用异构的完全修改的普通最小二乘和动态普通最小二乘模型来生成稳健可靠的长期参数。估计结果表明，矿产资源禀赋恶化了面板国家的碳扩散，如 LI、LMI 和整体。同样，能源强度会增加 CO ₂LMI、UMI 和整体面板的排放量。至于城市化，它有一个双向推断，即在 LI 国家的面板级别损害环境，同时在 LMI、UMI 和整体面板级别脱碳。LI、UMI 和整体面板支持 U 形曲线而不是 EKC。此外，CO ₂排放与其所有决定因素具有反馈格兰杰因果关系。研究结果为绿色政策提供了有用的政策见解。