Environmental degradation, renewable energy consumption, fossil fuels, urbanization, and economic growth: Assessing the validity of EKC in Nigeria

Abstract

This study empirically investigates the linkage among renewable energy consumption, fossil fuels, and urbanization and CO₂ emissions in Nigeria using Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) model ranging from 1990 to 2023. The main  The Bounds Test shows that there exists a long run equilibrium relationship among the variables as the F-statistic value is greater than the upper bound critical values at 1% and 5% levels of significance. The findings validate the EKC hypothesis supports the existence of U-shaped relationship between CO₂ emissions and GDP per capita in both long run and short run. Unexpectedly, the fossil fuels use decreases the level of CO₂ emissions in Nigeria in the long run; but increases it in the short run. Not surprisingly, clean energy consumption significantly reduces environmental pollution in time dynamics of long and short run. As more people move from rural to urban centers, the economic activities increase; and our findings reveal a significant positive relationship between urbanization and CO₂ emissions in the long run. Based on the empirical results and findings, the study recommends that Nigeria’s energy policy should, without restrictions, further encourage the use of clean and environmentally friendly energy source and further increase the awareness of the negative health deficit environmental pollution has on the people.