ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, TERRORISM AND TOURISM NEXUS IN AFRICA

Abstract

Amid escalating climate change impacts in Africa, marked by rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, extreme heatwaves, sea-level rise, droughts, and biodiversity loss, this study empirically examines the effects of terrorism and international tourism on environmental quality across the continent. In addition, it evaluates the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis within the African context. To achieve these objectives, the study employs a fixed effects model with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors to address cross-sectional dependence and heteroskedasticity. The empirical findings yield several key insights. First, tourism development is found to significantly increase CO₂ emissions in Africa. Second, terrorism shows a positive but statistically insignificant link to CO₂ emissions, suggesting localized impacts with limited continental influence. Third, the results provide empirical support for the U-shaped EKC hypothesis, implying that environmental degradation initially rises with economic growth but declines after surpassing a certain income threshold. Lastly, macroeconomic variables such as economic growth, trade openness, and urbanization are positively associated with CO₂ emissions, whereas renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation are found to mitigate environmental degradation. Policy implications are subsequently discussed.