Towards efforts to promote renewable energy development in Africa: Does governance quality matter?

In order to avert global climate change, the promotion of renewable energy is getting more attention from government and policymakers. There are many factors that can account for the determinant of renewable energy development. While the drivers of renewable energy development have been extensively examined, the influence of governance quality on renewable energy development is very scanty. To fill the gap in the literature, this study examines the influence of governance quality on renewable energy development in 42 African countries over the period 1996-2020. The empirical evidence is based on the panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) estimation technique to account for cross-sectional dependence. The results show that the impact of governance quality on renewable energy development is negative and statistically significant. This means that as governance quality increases, renewable energy development decreases. This is not surprising given the fact that governance quality in Africa is substantially low. In other words, the results imply that governance quality in most African countries still promote non-renewable and energy intensive production system.