ICT Diffusion, Renewable Energy Consumption and Co2 Emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This study analyses the direct effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on environmental quality and its indirect effect through an interaction term with renewable energy consumption for 48 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2005 to 2020. To this end, the study adopts panel pooled-OLS, fixed-effects, and random-effects models in conjunction with a more robust system-GMM. The findings reveal that increased energy use, urbanisation, and education dampen environmental quality over the investigated period while trade openness improves it. These outcomes suggest an urgent need to charter a viable route for environmental sustainability. More so, the study alludes that joint interaction between renewable energy and ICT diffusion spill-over improves the quality of the environment in SSA. This implies that the search for environmental sustainability is hidden in R&D-related investment in renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: ICT diffusion, CO2 emissions, Renewable energy, Panel data econometrics, sub-saharan africa