Abstract
Climate change and environmental degradation pose significant challenges to sustainable development. However, renewable energy (RE) can mitigate these challenges by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the environmental impacts of RE technologies should also be considered. Against this background, this study used panel data from 45 sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations from 2005 to 2022. We extracted data from the World Development Indicators (WDI), World Governance Indicators (WGI), and the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA). We applied pooled ordinary least squares (POLS), fixed effects (FEs) (based on the Hausman specification), and the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to account for endogeneity. The results show that the coefficient for lagged environmental management values is consistently positive, suggesting that past efforts to enhance environmental sustainability positively influence current environmental sustainability. However, a 1-unit increase in RE consumption improved environmental sustainability by 0.011 units. The effects of the carbon footprint (CF) on environmental management were mixed. This indicates that a one-unit increase in the CF reduces environmental sustainability by 0.286 units (FE) and increases it by 0.289 units (SGMM). The study concludes by highlighting the necessity for continued innovation and collaboration to achieve the sustainable and equitable deployment of RE.JEL Classification: Q01, Q27, Q54