Volume: Vol. 10 No. 1 | Page: 19-30
Busayo Victor OSUNTUYI
ENERGY USE, URBANISATION AND CARBON EMISSIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
Abstract:

The role of energy in any economy cannot be overemphasized. Agreeably, Nigeria is endowed with numerous sources of energy. Despite these sources however, Nigeria still depend mainly on non-renewable energy sources which are drivers of carbon (CO2) emissions. Other identified drivers of CO2 emissions are urbanization and economic growth. This paper therefore examines the dynamic relationship among energy use, urbanisation, economic growth and CO2 emissions for the periods of 1970 to 2014. The paper also test for the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The paper employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound testing Approach developed by Pesaran, Shin and Smith (2001) to estimate the short-run and long-run relationships among the variables. The estimated results of the paper reveal that energy use, urbanisation and economic growth have significant impacts on CO2 emissions both in short-run and long-run in Nigeria. However, the paper shows that there is no evidence to support EKC in Nigeria. For Nigeria to have a sustainable development, the paper recommends that there must be a paradigm shift from the current rate of energy use by which CO2 emissions are inherent to other alternative and low-carbon energy sources that are relatively free from CO2 emissions. The paper also recommends the establishment of efficient and sustainable urban energy infrastructure to control the growth of emissions in urban areas and that Nigeria should look beyond the EKC notion that economic growth is a solution to environmental pollution.

Keywords: Energy use, urbanisation, economic growth, carbon emissions, sustainable development.
Citation: Busayo Victor OSUNTUYI (2018). ENERGY USE, URBANISATION AND CARBON EMISSIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA. African Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 10 No. 1, 19-30.
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