TY - JOUR
T1 - Severity of environmental degradation and the impact on quality of life in Africa
AU - Sakariyahu, Rilwan
AU - Fagbemi, Temitope
AU - Adigun, Rasheed
AU - Lawal, Rodiat
AU - Seyingbo, Oluwagbenga
AU - Oyekola, Olayinka
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - Considering the mounting impacts of environmental degradation on the global ecosystem, this study offers an empirical contribution to the debate on whether there exists a significant nexus between environmental degradation and quality of life in Africa. Towards this end, we employ several econometric techniques to account for cross-sectional dependence, causality, and also present results based on IV-Lewbel 2SLS regression. Using a sample of African countries, the results indicate cross-sectional dependence due to spill-over effects from common factors in Africa, while the panel cointegration test affirms that environmental degradation have long-term consequences for quality of life only in sub-Saharan African region. Moreover, our results reveal a unidirectional causality between environmental degradation variables and quality of life at both the continent and sub-Saharan African region levels while a bi-directional causality between these variables are revealed for North Africa. On this evidence, our conjecture is that increased mineral extraction, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation, amongst other factors, may be driving this result. Hence, improvement in environmental quality in the continent would have an increasingly beneficial effects on the well-being and survival of the populace. The varied impacts across regions also suggest that policy initiatives toward mitigating the effects of environmental degradation should consider regional dynamics of the continent.
AB - Considering the mounting impacts of environmental degradation on the global ecosystem, this study offers an empirical contribution to the debate on whether there exists a significant nexus between environmental degradation and quality of life in Africa. Towards this end, we employ several econometric techniques to account for cross-sectional dependence, causality, and also present results based on IV-Lewbel 2SLS regression. Using a sample of African countries, the results indicate cross-sectional dependence due to spill-over effects from common factors in Africa, while the panel cointegration test affirms that environmental degradation have long-term consequences for quality of life only in sub-Saharan African region. Moreover, our results reveal a unidirectional causality between environmental degradation variables and quality of life at both the continent and sub-Saharan African region levels while a bi-directional causality between these variables are revealed for North Africa. On this evidence, our conjecture is that increased mineral extraction, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation, amongst other factors, may be driving this result. Hence, improvement in environmental quality in the continent would have an increasingly beneficial effects on the well-being and survival of the populace. The varied impacts across regions also suggest that policy initiatives toward mitigating the effects of environmental degradation should consider regional dynamics of the continent.
KW - Climate change
KW - Environmental degradation
KW - Quality of life
KW - Africa
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188520957&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120537
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120537
M3 - Article
C2 - 38508010
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 356
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 120537
ER -