Abstract
It is expected that fuel subsidy removal should hinder carbon emissions growth through low energy consumption channels amid higher energy prices. However, outliers in this theoretical disposition make empirical proof of the fuel subsidy-carbon intensity apt and primitive. Despite established fuel subsidy abolishment gains for climate and economic welfare, the relevance, magnitude and policy implications remain dimly. This paper employs the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) estimation procedure to gauge the contemporaneous influence of fuel subsidy for carbon intensity in Nigeria. Findings revealed that fuel subsidy removal inversely relates to Nigeria’s carbon emission in the short run and long run. The study recommends a complementary policy option that ensures additional financial savings to the government should be invested in public sector growth that can cushion the effect of relative income loss to the citizenry. The Nigerian government should ensure measures are kept in place to discourage overconsumption of alternative energy (for example coal) that could also threaten the green economy paradox.
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Data availability
The dataset(s) supporting the conclusions of this article is available in the World Bank Database and Internation Energy Agency (IEA) of various issues up to 2018 (World Bank 2018) (https://data.worldbank.org/https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics?country=WORLD&fuel=Energy%20supply&indicator=Total%20primary%20energy%20supply%20(TPES)%20by%20source).
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All the authors came up with a draft of their different perspective of what the introduction should look like and then, I.A. merges the ideas into one single introduction showing the motivations of the study. I.A. also came up with the design and collated data from appropriate sources and developed the theoretical framework and model specifications with the attendant’s prior expectation. I.O. developed the literature review and revised the entire manuscript after the preliminary draft with particular reference to the guidelines documented in the authors’ guide on the Journal website, analysed the collated data and gave the corresponding interpretations while discussing the findings in the context of relevant literature.
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Adekunle, I.A., Oseni, I.O. Fuel subsidies and carbon emission: evidence from asymmetric modelling. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 22729–22741 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12384-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12384-0