Urbanisation, Rule of Law, and Environmental Quality in Sub‑Saharan Africa
Keywords:
Environmental institution, Sustainable Development Goal, Economic activities, Regulatory enforcement, Energy consumption, Trade openness
Abstract
This study investigates the empirical relationship among urbanisation, rule of law, and environmental quality in 40 Sub-Saharan Africa countries based on a balanced panel data during 2000-2022. The study employs panel system of generalised method of moments (S-GMM) to examine the effects of urbanisation, rule of law, and its mediating role on environmental quality in the linkage between urbanisation and environmental quality in SSA. The study reveals rule of law and trade openness exerting negative pressures on ecological footprint, separately, to bring about improvement in environmental quality in the SSA region. However, urbanisation, industrialisation, and regulatory quality have positive effects on ecological footprint individually. The increase in ecological footprint due to these variables implies increasing pollution or reduction in environmental quality. Rule of law improves environmental quality but regulatory quality deteriorates it in the 40 SSA countries. The findings suggest the need for sustainable urban design, environmentally best practices in industrialisation, environmental management, strengthening legal institutions, enforcing environmental legislation, and promoting transparency and accountability in environmental governance through investment in judicial systems, and fostering partnerships among governments, civil society and the private sector.
References
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Adams, S., & Klobodu, E. M. (2017). Urbanisation, democracy, bureaucratic quality, and environmental degradation. Journal of Policy Modeling, 39(6), 1035-1051.
Akorede, Y. F., & Afroz, R. (2020). The relationship between urbanisation, CO2 emissions, economic growth and energy consumption in Nigeria. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 10(6). https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijeep/article/view/9355.
Alimi, O. Y., & Ajide, K. B. (2020). Data for the role of institutions in environment health outcomes nexus: Empirical evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. Mendeley Data, Soc Indic Res, 145(3), 1033–1062
Alola, A. A., Dike, G. C., & Alola, U. V. (2022). The role of legal system and socioeconomic aspects in the environmental quality drive of the Global South. Soc Indic Res, 163, 953–972. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-022-02920-x/
Arellano, M., & Bond, S. (1991). Some tests of specification for panel data Monte Carlo evidence and application to employment equations. Rev Econ Stud, 58, 277–297.
Azam, M., Liu, L., & Ahmad, N. (2021). Impact of institutional quality on environment and energy consumption: evidence from developing world. Environment, Development and Sustainability 23, 1646-1667, 2021.
Blundell, R. & Bond, S. (1998). Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models. Journal of Econometrics, 87, 115–143.
Boadu, F. O. (2016). Chapter 15: Environmental law In Boadu, F. O. (Ed) Agricultural law and economics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Academic Press, USA. 507-536 https://doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-801771-5.00015/
Bond, S., Hoeffler, A., & Tample, J. (2001). GMM estimation of empirical growth models. University of Oxford.
Castiglione, C., Infante, D., & Smirnova, J. (2015). Environment and economic growth: Is the rule of law the go-between? The case of high-income countries. Energy Sustain Soc, 5, 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-015-0054-8/
Chen, M. (2010). Rule of law and environmental policy stringency. Institute for the Study of International Aspects of Competition, ISIAC Working Paper 10-3.
Clement, V., Rigaud, K., K., de Sherbinin, A., […] & Elham, S. (2021). Groundswell Part 2: Acting on internal climate migration. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Crocker, J., Canevello, A., & Brown, A. A. (2017). Social motivation: Costs and benefits of selfishness and otherishness. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 299-325. https://doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044145
Duodu, E., & Mpuure, M. D. (2023). International trade and environmental pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do exports and imports matter? Environ Sci Pollut Res, 30(18), 53204–53220.
Feng, T., Du, H., Lin, Z., & Zuo, J. (2020). Spatial spillover effects of environmental regulations on air pollution: Evidence from urban agglomerations in China. Journal of Environmental Management, 272, 110998. https://doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110998/
Gholamian, K., Vakilifard, H., Talebnia, G., & Hejazi, R. (2019). Identification and prioritization of environmental criteria of sustainable outsourcing model in fajr jam gas refining company with analytic hierarchy process method. Iranian (Iranica) Journal of Energy & Environment, 10(3), 204-210, https://doi.org/10.5829/ijee.2019.10.03.07/
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Global Indicator Framework (2022). Sustainable development goals and targets of 2030 agenda for sustainable development, E/CN.3/2022/2.
Haldar, A., & Sethi, N. (2021). Effect of institutional quality and renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: An empirical investigation for developing countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(12), 15485-15503.
Hassan, S., Khan, S., Xia, E., & Fatima, H. (2020). Role of institutions in correcting environmental pollution: An empirical investigation. Sustainable Cities and Society, 53, 101901.
IOM (2022). Global Data Institute Thematic Brief #1: Evidence summary on climate change and the future of human mobility.
IPCC (2022). Climate change and land: Special Report. PMCID: PMC9970853PMID:36849692
Jay, C. Yu, Y., Crawford I. […] & Topping D. (2024). Prioritize environmental sustainability in use of AI and data science methods. Nat. Geosci, 17, 106–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01369-y/
Kamah, M., Riti, J. S., & Bin, P. (2021). Inclusive growth and environmental sustainability: The role of institutional quality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28, 34885–34901.
Mavragani, A. Nikolaou, I. E., & Tsagarakis, K. P. (2016). Open economy, institutional quality, and environmental performance: a macroeconomic approach. Sustainability, 8, 601.
Michael, C. (2024). Danger in the air: Africa’s 10 most polluted cities revealed. https://businessday.ng/africa/article/danger-in-the-air-africa’s-10-most-polluted-cities-revealed/ Accessed February 20, 2024.
Muhammad, S. & Long, J. (2021). Rule of law and CO2 emissions: A comparative analysis across 65 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, 123539, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123539/
Muigua, K. (2024). Fostering environmental rule of law at national and regional level in Africa https://thelawyer.africa/2024/01/15/environmental-rule-of-law-in-africa/
Nathaniel, S. P., Yalçiner, K., & Bekun, F. V. (2021). Assessing the environmental sustainability corridor: Linking natural resources, renewable energy, human capital, and ecological footprint in BRICS. Resources Policy, 70(C).
Ogunkan, D. V. (2022). Achieving sustainable environmental governance in Nigeria: A review for policy consideration. Urban Governance, 2(1), 212-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.04.004/
Oruonye, E. D., & Ahmed, Y. M. (2020). The role of enforcement in environmental protection in Nigeria. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 7(01), 048-056. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2020.7.1.0237.
Oteng-Abayie, E. F., Duodu, E., Mensah, G., & Frimpong, P. B. (2022). Natural resource abundance, environmental sustainability, and policies and institutions for environmental sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Resources Policy, 79, 103097.
Oyebode, O. J. (2018). Impact of environmental laws and regulations on Nigerian environment. World Journal of Research and Review, 7(3), 9-14.
Petkova, E. P., Jack, D. W., Volavka-Close, N. H., & Kinney, P. L. (2013). Particulate matter pollution in African cities. Air Qual Atmos Health 6(3), 603–614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-013-0199-6.
Tang, Z., Tian, Y., & Yu, S. (2023). The effect of environmental governance in quality improvement of urbanisation: Evidence from China 2000–2017. Environmental Economics and Management, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1117225/
The Access Initiative (2023). The Road to Realizing Environmental Right in Africa. Moving from Principles to Practice, 2, 16-34.
Wolf, M. J., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C. de Sherbinin, A. […] & Wendling, Z. A. (2002). 2022 Environmental performance index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. epi.yale.edu
World Bank (2022). World Development Indicators. World Bank, Washington, DC. https://data.worldbank.org/
World Bank (2024). Understanding poverty: Urban development.
World Justice Project (2024). Rule of law index.
World Justice Project (2024). Rule of law index. http://worldjusticeprojectorg/sites/default/files/fies/wjpruleoflawndex2024/
Yasin, I. Ahmad, N. & Chaudhary, M. A. (2021). The impact of financial development, political institutions, and urbanisation on environmental degradation: Evidence from 59 less-developed economies. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 23, 6698–6721.
Published
2025-01-25
Section
Articles
