Department of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, University of Alicante, Sant Vicent del Raspeig, Spain.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(18):53204-53220. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26086-2. Epub 2023 Feb 28.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Africa in general are known as the lowest emitters of carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. However, CO emissions in SSA are increasing, making it a problem of concern and calls for attention given its adverse consequences on human health and climate change. International trade is argued to have a vital role in global and SSA emissions in diverse ways, leading to doubts of whether trade is good or bad to the environment. As a result, we explore the environmental effect of international trade in 33 SSA countries from 1990 to 2020. The study further evaluates the differential effect of exports and imports on environmental pollution. The generalized method of moment estimator and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) causality test were utilized. The results revealed that the overall effect of trade reduces environmental pollution by about 0.10% and 0.79% in both the short and long run, respectively. Again, we observe that exports and imports minimize environmental pollution of about 0.07% and 0.45% (0.08% and 0.58%) in the short run (long run), respectively. Regarding D-H results, we noticed the existence of bidirectional causality between total trade and environmental pollution, whereas exports and imports have a unidirectional causality from CO emissions to exports and imports. We conclude based on the findings that international trade causes pollution reduction in SSA. Furthermore, we establish that exports and imports have a homogeneous impact on environmental pollution in SSA. Given the results, we call for trade initiatives that ensure improvement in environmental and energy efficiency technologies related to production and transportation of exported and imported goods and services.
撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）和整个非洲通常被认为是二氧化碳（CO）排放量最低的地区。然而，SSA 的 CO 排放量正在增加，这是一个值得关注的问题，因为它对人类健康和气候变化产生了不利影响。国际贸易被认为以多种方式在全球和 SSA 的排放中起着至关重要的作用，这导致人们对贸易对环境是好是坏产生了怀疑。因此，我们从 1990 年到 2020 年研究了 33 个 SSA 国家的国际贸易的环境影响。该研究进一步评估了出口和进口对环境污染的差异影响。我们使用了广义矩估计法和 Dumitrescu 和 Hurlin（D-H）因果检验。结果表明，贸易的总体效应在短期和长期内分别使环境污染减少了约 0.10%和 0.79%。此外，我们观察到出口和进口分别使环境污染在短期内减少了约 0.07%和 0.45%（在长期内减少了 0.08%和 0.58%）。关于 D-H 结果，我们注意到总贸易和环境污染之间存在双向因果关系，而出口和进口对 CO 排放到出口和进口有单向因果关系。根据这些发现，我们得出结论，国际贸易导致 SSA 地区的污染减少。此外，我们还确定出口和进口对 SSA 的环境污染有相同的影响。鉴于这些结果，我们呼吁采取贸易举措，确保与出口和进口货物和服务的生产和运输相关的环境和能源效率技术得到改进。
