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Environmental Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Case of Production and Consumption Activities

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Abstract

Environmental pollution studies are fast gathering momentum in trying to find a solution to the global climate change problem. However, while several causes of environmental degradation have been analysed in the past, the roles of production and consumption activities remain undiscussed. The identified literature gap informs the conduct of this panel analysis covering 31 sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations from 1996 to 2019, using the system of the generalised methods of moments as the estimation technique. Findings confirm that production activities are the main problem of environmental degradation in SSA while consumption activities have a beneficial but insignificant impact on the region’s environment. Also, trade openness exerts a positive and significant effect on environmental degradation, while foreign direct investment reduces pollution. Thus, ensuing policies from the study provide the means to lower environmental degradation by focusing on domestic productive activities within the region. It is also imperative for the region to consider supporting production plants that are environmentally friendly while producing their tradable goods. As such, the region can then leverage the beneficial effects of foreign investment inflow and consumption to promote environmental sustainability.

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Data Availability

Data available on request from the author.

Notes

  1. This is used to describe the level of exposure of the people living in sub-Saharan Africa to the high degree of ozone depletion, which is usually caused by pollution of the region’s environment. This inference is drawn from the World Development Indicators’ (WDI) description of particulate emissions damage (see World Development Indicators, 2020).

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Acknowledgements

The author appreciates the anonymous reviewers and the journal handling editors whose review contribution and handling greatly improve the content of the work.

Funding

The author received review support provided by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), which also provides the research grant to complete this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Social Sciences, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria

    Ekundayo Peter Mesagan

  2. Institute of Business Research, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Ekundayo Peter Mesagan

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Correspondence to Ekundayo Peter Mesagan.

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Mesagan, E.P. Environmental Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Case of Production and Consumption Activities. J Knowl Econ 13, 2840–2867 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-021-00842-6

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