Institute for Entrepreneurship and Development Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Feb;27(6):6163-6179. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-07101-x. Epub 2019 Dec 21.
An increase in economic activities which leads to economic growth has been adduced as a possible factor for environmental degradation. While some other studies have argued that as economies keep growing, there are possibilities for resource redistribution which could engender environmental balance, thus engendering the argument on the conflicting-complementary position of the environment-growth nexus. In the light of this, this study uses previous activities between economic activities and the environment to determine the conflicting or complementary relationship that exists between economic growth and the environment. Also, using Nigeria as a case study, the design of environmental growth nexus to achieving sustainable development is assessed. Annual time series data between 1970 and 2014 were sourced from the World Development Indicators. Following the neoclassical perspective on ecological growth and the Kuznets inverted U-hypothesis on the environment-growth relations, stationarity test was performed, and the autoregressive distributed lag estimates were employed. From the study, it is seen that factors like rainfall that promotes environmental quality in the long run promote economic growth (per capita and GDP growth) in Nigeria. Similarly, factors like natural resource utilization, which depletes environmental quality, increases economic growth but reduces economic growth per capita; thus, with questions for development, the possibility of a complementary relationship for environmental quality and economic growth is spotted if the right policies are ensured. Also, the study found evidence of a growing conflicting relation between environmental quality (CO) and economic growth (per capita and GDP growth). Meanwhile, these conflicts to a great extent find expression in the Kuznets hypothesis; such that, if policies that promote income per capita reduces pollution and pursues eco-efficiency via economic growth are properly harnessed, there are the prospects of meeting up with the goals of environmental sustainability in developing economies.
经济活动的增加导致经济增长，这被认为是环境恶化的一个可能因素。虽然其他一些研究认为，随着经济的持续增长，资源重新分配的可能性会带来环境平衡，从而产生环境与增长关系的矛盾互补论点。有鉴于此，本研究利用经济活动与环境之间的先前活动来确定经济增长与环境之间存在的矛盾或互补关系。此外，还利用尼日利亚作为案例研究，评估了环境增长关系实现可持续发展的设计。1970 年至 2014 年的年度时间序列数据来自世界发展指标。根据生态增长的新古典观点和环境增长关系的库兹涅茨倒 U 假说，进行了平稳性检验，并采用自回归分布滞后估计。从研究中可以看出，像降雨这样的因素从长远来看会促进环境质量，从而促进尼日利亚的经济增长（人均和 GDP 增长）。同样，像自然资源利用这样的因素，会消耗环境质量，从而增加经济增长，但会降低人均经济增长；因此，如果实施正确的政策，就有可能建立环境质量和经济增长之间的互补关系。此外，该研究还发现，环境质量（CO）和经济增长（人均和 GDP 增长）之间的增长矛盾关系存在证据。与此同时，这些冲突在很大程度上反映了库兹涅茨假说；也就是说，如果促进人均收入的政策能够减少污染，并通过经济增长追求生态效率，那么在发展中经济体实现环境可持续性目标就有希望。
