Integration of renewable energy and socioeconomic development for environmental sustainability in Africa: An empirical analysis

As Africa grapples with the challenges of energy access, economic growth, urbanization and industrialization, as well as the environmental degradation, the adoption of renewable energy technologies emerges as a promising solution. Therefore, this article examines the effects of socioeconomic growth and renewable energy integration on environmental sustainability in 32 African countries using the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model, and Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality. The findings demonstrate that urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth all contribute to environmental deterioration. The ARDL model estimation shows that for every 1% increase in economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, there will be a 1% rise in CO2, respectively. Similarly, the results indicate that an additional 1% in economic growth and industrialization is expected to result in a 0.14% and 0.02% increase in ecological footprint, respectively. The NARDL model shows that industrialization significantly contribute into the CO2 increase, while renewable energy consumption decreases ecological footprint. Moreover, the causality test revealed the bidirectional causality between industrialization and CO2, and urbanization and ecological footprint. Renewable energy consumption in both models showed the potential to enhance environmental quality, underscoring the significance of integrating renewable energy with socioeconomic development to support sustainable development.