Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Kenya

Abstract

The increase in the level of CO2 emissions has triggered the global temperature to rise above the pre-industrial levels. The unprecedented climate change has resulted in flooding and droughts that have displaced millions of people from their homes, plunged them into poverty, famine, and stunted economic growth, especially in countries with shoddy infrastructure. The large-scale use of fossil fuels across the globe, increase in urbanization and economic growth are likely to worsen the environmental quality. However, the proponents of the economic growth hypothesis do not admit that the consumption of fossil fuels, economic growth and urban expansion, are responsible for the increased level of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. The current study, therefore, examines the effects of fossil fuels consumption, economic growth, urbanization and on CO2 emissions in Kenya from 1971-2014. The study follows a formal time series econometric estimation approach and estimates the long-run model using an autoregressive distributed lag. The study findings show that economic growth and the uptake of fossil fuels increase CO2 emission, while urbanization reduces it. The study recommends phasing out subsidies for conventional energy supply, promoting energy efficiency and accelerating the development of clean energy technologies.