Energy poverty in light of the climate emergency in Sub-Saharan Africa: Impact and transmission channels

This study analyzes the effect of energy poverty on environmental quality for a sample of 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We specify and estimate a linear panel data model for the period 2000-2021, using fixed effects and the Driscoll-Kraay method. The results show that access to electricity and clean energy for cooking have a positive and significant effect on deforestation and carbon emissions. Taking into account non-linear analysis, we find that there is an inverted U-relationship between energy indicators and environmental quality, thus, verifying the hypothesis of the Kuznet environmental curve. Thus, access to electricity and access to clean cooking energy improve environmental quality from a threshold. For the resolution of endogeneity, Lewbel 2SLS, the Kiviet method and S-GMM were used. In addition, analysis of the sample data using a structural equation model (PLS-SEM) shows that energy indicators pass through various channels to affect environmental quality. Therefore, based on these results, we recommend increasing investments in electricity infrastructure, especially in clean decentralized energy, in order to reduce deforestation and, therefore, CO2 emissions.