Climate Change Mitigation, Green Energy and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

This study empirically examines the relationship between climate change mitigation and green energy and their impact on sustainable development in Nigeria. Energy consumption is inevitable in economic development. Its consumption constitutes the single largest source of carbon emissions which are of great danger to the existence of our planet earth by causing climate change. The greater awareness of need to mitigate climate variability has brought about intense focus on the diverse impacts of green energy on the environment. It is on this ground that this study aims to empirically establish the relationship between sustainable development, climate change, and green energy in Nigeria. This research employed the dependent variable of sustainable development measured by GNI percapita; explanatory variables of ecological footprint, climate change measured by CO2 emissions, and green energy measured by renewable energy consumption and the control variable of education measured by Government expenditure on education. This study employed the NARDL bounds test for cointegration with the result showing a long-run relationship in the model. At the 5% significance level, only the positive change in ecological footprint and the negative change in education significantly impact sustainable development in the Long-run in Nigeria. Green energy and climate change do not have any significant impacts on sustainable development in Nigeria in the long-run. The Cointegration equation is highly significant. The study recommends that the government should set up policies that will ensure that GNI percapita is captured to adjust for environmental cost which are caused by C02 emissions and environmental safety necessitated by green energy consumption.