The anthropogenic consequences of energy consumption and population expansion in Africa? Do governance factors make any difference?

Sub-Saharan Africa is greatly affected by global warming and is the most affected region in the world. Although several studies in the literature have attempted to identify the causative agents and recommendations to the environmental damages, the gap remains unfilled as the situation is still not any better. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge through the investigation of the role of governance, energy consumption and population on the environmental quality in Sub-Saharan Africa using data spanning over the period 1998–2014 for 46 countries in the region. For the empirical analysis, the system-generalised method of moments (S-GMM) is employed to analyse the model. Findings from the study reveal that while the total population has a negative but insignificant impact on emissions, the urban population has a positive and statistically significant impact on emissions. The moderation effect of governance is found to overturn the adversities of the urban population on emissions, but this effect is statistically insignificant. The study recommends proper and strategic management of population pressure in urban centres to mitigate its impact on emissions