Synthesizing the role of biomass energy consumption and human development in achieving environmental sustainability

Promoting sustainable energy use is crucial to achieving environmental sustainability. However, there is limited documentation on how human development moderates the effect of energy consumption on environmental sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to uncover the impact of biomass energy consumption and human development on the ecological footprint in 31 African countries from 1996 to 2018. To achieve this, we employ Driscoll-Kraay, instrumental variables, and panel quantile regression techniques to address heteroscedasticity, endogeneity, and conditional heterogeneity. The result shows that biomass energy consumption increases ecological footprint, while human development reduces ecological footprint. The results also show that human development reduces the adverse effect of biomass energy consumption on environmental sustainability. Moreover, the pairwise Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality results prove the two-way causal association between biomass energy consumption and ecological footprint. The feedback effect between human development and the ecological footprint is also supported. To improve environmental sustainability, policymakers should promote sustainable biomass energy consumption through awareness and education campaigns.