Environmental Degradation and Nigeria’s Macroeconomic Space

Abstract

The fear for the future of human existence on this planet has made it necessary to pay special attention to studies that are related to the environment. In view of this, this study attempts to re-examine the environmental Kuznets curve in the midst of selected macroeconomic variables in Nigeria. The study estimated the relationship between carbon dioxide emission and some selected macroeconomic variables such as energy consumption (proxied by energy price); gross domestic product; population density; trade openness; ratio of manufacturing as a share of GDP and foreign direct investment using the ARDL model. With the adoption of secondary data for the period of 1981 to 2016 obtained from the world development indicator, the findings validated an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and the pollution in Nigeria in the midst of other Macroeconomic variables and based on this, it was recommended among others the building of a strong and effective environmental regulatory framework for the Nigerian economy and the adoption of clean technologies for the Nigerian economy