Factors Affecting CO₂ Emissions And Environmental Efficiency:Evidence From Different Regions In Africa

African countries have recently contributed to the global aggregate emissions as a result of the quest for economic development.This study,therefore aims at examining the factors affecting CO₂emissions and environmental efficiency in different regions in Africa.The study made a significant theoretical contribution by examining the impact of fossil fuel,non-fossil fuel,and FDI on CO₂emissions in five regions in Africa.It also investigated the nonlinear relationship between innovation and CO₂ emissions and explored the determinants of environmental efficiency in different regions.The methods chosen for this study are robust and therefore,produce efficient results by overcoming the incidence of cross section reliance among the countries.To achieve the above mentioned objectives,the study conducted a preliminary test using econometrics approach such as cross section dependence（CD）test,cross section IPS（CIPS）panel unit root test,cross section ADF（CADF）panel unit root test,Levin Lin Chu（LLC）panel unit test,Pedroni cointegration and Westerlund bootstrap cointegration tests.After establishing that the variables are stationary and have a long run relationship,the study employed panel fully modified ordinary least square（PFMOLS）,panel dynamic ordinary least square（PDOLS）,general method of moments（GMM）,fixed effect model（FEM）,truncated regression,two-stage least square（2SLS）and ordinary least square（OLS）to estimate the long run relationship among the variables to aid in achieving the objectives.The results showed that fossil fuel energy consumption increases CO₂ emissions in the main panel,West,North,Central,East and Southern Africa regions,while non-fossil fuel energy consumption reduces CO₂ emissions in Central Africa and East Africa.Also,the study confirmed EKC in West,Central and East African panel.Findings confirmed an in overturned U-shape connection between innovation and environmental pollution and in Egypt,Morocco,Mauritius and South Africa for country level.Also,there is an existence of pollution haven hypothesis PHH at panel level and in Mozambique and South Africa while pollution halo effect PHE is present in Algeria and Kenya.Human capital increases CO₂ emissions at the panel level and in Algeria,Morocco,Tunisia and Mauritius.The results for truncated regression confirmed an upturned U-shape linkage between environmental efficiency and corruption hence Environmental Corruption Curve ECC is confirmed in West,Central and North African regions.Also,human capital promotes environmental efficiency in North and Central African regions.However,in West Africa and Southern Africa regions human capital reduces environmental efficiency.The innovations of the study are as follows;first,examines the different effect of fossil fuel and non-fossil consumption on CO₂ emissions in five different regions in Africa,second,explores the non-linear link amongst innovation and CO₂ emissions at both panel and individual country level.Third,investigate the efficiency and its influencing factors in different regions in Africa.Policy considerations;first,cooperation amongst countries in technological innovation to transfer green technologies and R&D can be promoted to magnify renewable energy resources.Second,institutional quality should be enhanced to fight against both individual and institutional corruptions by setting up a special judicial system.Third,governments should strengthen intellectual property IP protection laws to serve as an incentive for innovators to apply for patent.Fourth,foreign direct investment should be screened to encourage environmentally friendly FDI’s in order to avoid pollution intensive FDI’s entering into the host economies.