Impact of climate finance on environmental quality in Sub-Sahara Africa
- Authors: Doku, Isaac
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- Economic aspects , Economic development -- Environmental aspects Macroeconomics -- Econometric models
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50513 , vital:42206
- Description: Most climate finances available to Sub-Sahara Africa countries tries to assist governmental and non-governmental institutions decarbonise by reducing greenhouse gases or promote conservation of forests through REDD+ programs. On that backdrop, three main general objectives arises for this study; (1) to examine the impact of climate finance on greenhouse gas emissions (2) To find the impact of climate finance on deforestation in Sub-Sahara Africa (3) To determine the major recipient characteristics that attracts more climate finance to Sub-Sahara Africa. The first general objective looked at three greenhouse gas variables; carbon emission, methane and nitrous oxide emission. Data was analysed using system GMM for all countries in Sub-Sahara Africa for the period 2006-2017 based on data availability. The first general objective of the study employed system GMM robust standard errors and triangulates the result by using DOLS and FMOLS for robustness check. The findings show that climate finance is not reducing nitrous oxide, methane and total greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, whereas carbon emission showed mixed results. System GMM results affirmed the existence of EKC, but DOLS and FMOLS results gave a contradictory finding. Based on that, we cannot conclude the existence of EKC for our studies. Energy consumption showed a positive significant impact on carbon, methane and total greenhouse gas for all three models in accordance to prior studies and affirming pollution haven hypothesis, but a mixed result for nitrous oxide. Finally, the findings from governance readiness showed governments in Africa’s unwillingness to reduce carbon but very keen in reducing the other greenhouses gases for all three models. Existence of pollution haven hypothesis shows that more hazardous and dirty investments are moving from developed countries to developing countries with less strict environmental rules like Sub-Sahara Africa. The second and third general objectives of the study employed system-GMM estimation technique to take care of time series variations in the data, as well as capture the unobserved country-specific time-invariant effect. Three and four stages hierarchical regressions are carried out for objectives two and three respectively and a panel quantile regression is employed to test sensitivity of the results for both analysis. The findings for objective two showed that increase in climate climate finance increases deforestation in two models and one model showing a decrease in deforestation, making the result very difficult to interpret and mixed. The study did not also get support for EKC but indicated that forest transition curve is rather U-shaped for all countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and two sub-regional blocks; EAC and CEMAC. Population growth and agricultural land use have been found to be major drivers of deforestation. Most of the governance indicators showed adverse impact on deforestation. The result for objective three indicates that Sub-Sahara African countries with high population growth rate, higher poverty levels, better ease of doing business profile, weaker governance policies, weaker control of corruption, stronger rule of law enforcement, deepened social inequality and better ICT usage have attracted more climate finance. Based on that, we recommend Africa countries to strengthen their practice of rule of law and more stringent rules to prevent or minimize corruption in the system. Climate finance managers should also undertake rigorous monitoring and supervision when funds are extended to reduce misappropriation of funds by recipients.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Climate change mitigation strategies and its effect on economic change
- Authors: Roux, Louis Johannes
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- Economic aspects , Climate change mitigation , Global warming -- Economic aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: vital:8889 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020816
- Description: Scientists started to study the relationship between changing weather patterns and the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other harmful gasses. They soon discovered compelling evidence that CO2 concentration and other gases have been increasing and it was causing temperatures to increase in certain areas on the earth, which disturb historic weather patterns. Climate change has become a very popular field of study in the modern science. Europe first introduced measures to reduce carbon emissions but it was the Kyoto in 1997 where global leaders were asked to participate in a joint protocol to reduce greenhouse gases. South Africa responded to climate change challenges in 2008 with the Long term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS). The Integrated Resource Plan for electricity to 2030 was developed from the LTMS scenarios and after some major amendments it was accepted and promulgated by Government and has recently been included in the National Development Plan to 2030 (NDP). There are concerns about the achievability of some of the objectives listed in the NDP and this study explored the IRP2010 as the proposed strategy to meet energy demand and reduce emissions. The purpose for this study was to answer this question: Is there an optimum climate change mitigation strategy for South Africa and how can the effect thereof be simulated on economic growth? Through primary and secondary research during the study it was possible to define some 32 categories of energy producing assets that are commercially active or nearly market-ready. The characteristics of the various assets and the relevant fuel are defined in mathematical equations. It was found that the three portfolios that matched the 450TWh electricity requirement would perform substantially better than the NDP portfolio in terms of cost and similar on emissions with marginally fewer employment opportunities created. The proposed electricity strategy in this study was 390TWh and 33.5 Million tonnes of oil consumption by 2030. This strategy was substantially more affordable than the 450TWh strategy. Trends in the Supply and Use tables since 1993 were studied and then forecasted to 2030 to determine consumption levels on electricity and liquid fuel into the future. It was found that electricity demand is seriously overestimated and South Africa would end up with large excess capacity in electricity infrastructures if the NDP energy strategy (IRP2010) is implemented. It is concluded that the NDP energy strategy to 2030 is based on an incorrect electricity demand forecast. It would lead to excessive investment in an electricity infrastructure. Government has confirmed that part of the new infrastructure would be nuclear. It is also found that NDP has not clearly supported nuclear as part of the strategy. Nuclear is partly the reason why the capital requirement of the NDP portfolio is so much higher than the other portfolios. It is the conclusion of this study that South Africa do not need to invest in a nuclear build programme as the electricity demand would be adequately covered by adding the new Medupi and Kusile power stations, Ingula pump storage scheme, some wind and solar renewables, electricity from cogeneration, biogas, biomass, small hydro and imported hydro from neighbour countries. To invest in electricity capacity to generate 450TWh annually by 2030 would result in excessive energy cost, GDP growth could be up to 1% lower due to underperforming capital investments in the electricity infrastructure and higher energy cost would lead to a decline in global competitiveness.
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- Date Issued: 2013