Economic Growth, Energy Consumption, and Carbon Emissions

This chapter examines the interactions among energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions in Nigeria for the period 1971-2018. The study adopts time-varying parameter vector auto regression (TVP-VAR) to explore the dynamic effects among the variables of interest. After analyzing the statistical properties of the data with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), a causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth was found. It is also found that the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is valid for Nigeria. It implies that as the economy of Nigeria grew, emissions were reduced. It is recommended that the Nigerian government should continue pursuing emissions reduction policies, such as the nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and should also ensure the appropriate energy mix to enhance industrialization drive and improve environmental quality.