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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1445476
This article is part of the Research Topic Technology and Energy: Policy and Business Paths towards Net-Zero Emissions View all 5 articles

Environmental Degradation in Emerging-Market Economies of Africa: Evaluating Impacts of Human Capital Development, International Trade, Renewable Energy Consumption, and Urbanization

Provisionally accepted
Salwa BAJJA Salwa BAJJA 1*Hassan Radoine Hassan Radoine 1Ali Celik Ali Celik 2Zahoor Ahmed Zahoor Ahmed 3Rachida El bouayadi Rachida El bouayadi 1
  • 1 Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
  • 2 Gelisim University, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 3 Lebanese American University, Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This research explores the impact of human capital development, international trade, financial development, renewable energy consumption, and urbanization on environmental degradation in emerging-market economies in Africa. The study adopts a quantitative approach using panel data from 8 African countries between 1991 and 2021. The study adopted the method of Mean Group Dynamic Least Squares and Augmented Mean Group methods to estimate the empirical relationship between the variables of interest. The findings indicate that urbanization, energy consumption, economic growth, and human capital development have significant and positive effects on environmental degradation, while financial development, renewable energy consumption, manufacturing activities, and international trade have a significant negative effect on environmental degradation. The study concludes that policymakers in emerging-market economies in Africa need to promote financial development and renewable energy consumption while simultaneously addressing the negative impacts of urbanization on the environment to achieve sustainable economic growth.

    Keywords: Human capital development, Urbanization, Emerging market economies, environmental degradation, Manufacturing activities

    Received: 07 Jun 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 BAJJA, Radoine, Celik, Ahmed and El bouayadi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Salwa BAJJA, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco

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