Severity of environmental degradation and the impact on quality of life in Africa.

Sakariyahu, Rilwan; Fagbemi, Temitope; Adigun, Rasheed; Lawal, Rodiat; Seyingbo, Oluwagbenga; Oyekola, Olayinka

Abstract

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.

Citation

SAKARIYAHU, R., FAGBEMI, T., ADIGUN, R., LAWAL, R., SEYINGBO, O. and OYEKOLA, O. 2024. Severity of environmental degradation and the impact on quality of life of Africa. Journal of environmental management [online], 356, article number 120537. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120537

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Mar 19, 2024
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2024
• Journal: Journal of environmental management
• Print ISSN: 0301-4797
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-8630
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 356
• Article Number: 120537
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120537
• Keywords: Climate change; Environmental degradation; Quality of life; Africa
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2279596