The heterogeneous impacts of Sino-African trade relations on carbon intensity in Africa

Abstract

Studies on the environmental impacts of China-African trade relations are scarce. To fill the gap, this research examines the effects of Sino-African trade relations on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions intensity in Africa, employing panel quantile regression for 39 African countries over the period of 1992-2015. The results indicate that imports have a negative and significant effect on CO₂ emissions intensity across all quantile distributions, whereas exports have a positive and significant effect, except at the 25th and 35th quantiles. The findings also confirm the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, particularly for countries at higher emissions points. The study also demonstrates that urbanisation and energy intensity positively affect CO₂ intensity, while the effect of foreign direct investment is negative and significant, confirming the pollution halo hypothesis. Finally, policy implications are presented based on the findings of the study.

Keywords: Carbon intensity; Sino–African. quantile regression; Trade.