The Relationship Between Net Trade and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Africa

We study the net impacts of international trade on carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions in African countries at different income groupings and otherdriving forces of environmental impacts (CO2 emissions) using an augmentedSTIRPATN model. The continent experienced a large growth in carbon dioxideemissions of about 701.88% between 1960 and 2010, and this provoked ourinterest in the study. We identify the key driving forces to be net trade, populationdensity, final consumption expenditure (annual growth), manufacturing sectorand services sector. We also found that the services sector consistently show lowcarbonemission impacts particularly in low middle income countries in Africa(LIMCA) and upper income countries in Africa (UICA). Indicating that a shiftfrom highly depended manufacturing economies that suggest increasing-carboneconomies in both LIMC and UICA to services economies is vital in order to strivefor a low-carbon economies in the continent. The coefficient for net trade standsout explicitly significant and positive for all the income groupings. The findingsshow that the average effect of net trade over CO2, when the net trade changesacross time and between countries increases by 1%, CO2 emissions increases byabout 1.68%, 2.45% and 1.01% for LICA, LMICA and UICA respectively, whenall other predictors are constant.