A sustainable study of economic growth and development amidst ecological footprint: New insight from Nigerian Perspective

Abstract

The current study presents the mitigation of Nigerian economic performance and ecological footprint with other selected variables in ascertainment of the contribution of the country in global fight to reduce global warming amidst competitive economic operations. The motivation behind this is due to the fact that the country’s economy is majorly relying on two major sectors which are considered as emission-induced sectors. These sectors (petroleum and agricultural sector) are characterized by the excessive utilization of non-renewable sources of energy in operations. The findings from this study, both from the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Granger Causality (GC) perspectives aligns with the first stage of the theory (scale effect). Hence, both the economic growth and ecological footprint are increasing in the same pace. Among the findings from the ARDL regression are: a positive relation amongst income (GDP per capita) and the selected independent variables (ecological footprint, agric, FDI, energy use). Also, a negative relationship is revealed amid income and population of the country The findings from the causality test are: A one-way (Uni-directional) transmission is passed from economic growth (GDP per capita) to ecological footprint, from energy use to ecological footprint, from population to ecological footprint, from economic growth to energy use and from population to economic growth. It is evident that almost all the variables are causing the ecological footprint which aligns with the findings on ARDL regression. This has paved way for a well-articulated policy framing from the authorities of Nigeria with focus on the operations of both petroleum and agriculture. From the findings of this study, a well-structured policy is expected to be framed to curtail the growth based emissions in the Nigeria.