An Investigation into the Relationship Between Economic Growth, Energy Consumption, and the Environment: Evidence from Nigeria

This thesis employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL), Toda-Yamamoto causality analysis, and ordinary least square (OLS for robust estimation) techniques to empirically investigate the impact of economic growth and energy consumption on the environment in Nigeria from 1980 to 2020. The results of cointegration demonstrate a long-term link between the model's input variables. The outcome of the first objective of the study shows that trade and economic development in Nigeria worsen the state of the environment. Environmental quality is accelerated by financial development; nevertheless, FDI is proven to be insignificant in predicting environmental quality. The result demonstrates that FDI and energy use both have the potential to significantly speed up the rate of environmental degradation. Nevertheless, trade has a negligible impact on the environment in the country, and financial development slows down environmental deterioration. The study also finds that the combination between energy and economic development improves Nigeria's environmental quality. The outcome of the fourth objective shows that economic expansion and energy consumption have a favorable impact on the environment. Additionally, environmental degradation, energy use, and economic growth are all causally related. Moreover, the outcome of the robust estimation reveals a positive and significant relationship between economic growth and energy consumption in the environment. Therefore, the study suggests economic policies with environmental control measures. This could be through an emphasis on the use of other alternatives of low-emission energy, that will mitigate the level of C02 and enhance energy utilization for a better environment in the nation.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10454/19771

Type

Thesis

Qualification name

PhD