The energy consumption structure and African EMDEs' sustainable development

Abstract

This research evaluates the importance of renewable power and conventional fuels consumption in the economic growth of 20 African EMDEs towards sustainable development. Due to the evidence of slope heterogeneity alongside cross-sectional dependence, the author applies second-generational econometric techniques for heterogeneous panel data. After detecting the long-term relationship among all variables using Westerlund panel-data cointegration test, the long-run estimates are computed by AMG, MG and CCEMG estimators, which indicates that nonrenewable and renewable energy usage fosters African EMDEs' economic growth. Besides, capital, government expenditure, and trade openness also encourage economic growth. Moreover, the causality analysis (using Dumitrescu and Hurlin test) supports the feedback effects among the selected variables and economic growth. The findings provide critical implications for sustainable energy policies that contribute to the sustainable development of African EMDEs.