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Theoretically, population growth is believed to increase greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO 2 emissions through the increase in human activities. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate this assertion in Nigeria using an autoregressive distributed lag model covering periods from 1971-2000, 1971-2005, and 1971-2010 recursively. The results indicated that population was not a determinant of CO 2 emissions in all the three periods in the long run. However, economic growth was found to be the only long-run CO 2 emissions determining factor within the studied periods. However, in the short run, virtually all the explanatory variables and their lags, that is, population growth, economic growth, and energy consumption, were significant in determining CO 2 emissions. The findings suggested that population growth, which is the focal point of the study, could only determine CO 2 emissions in the short run. Therefore, population checking measures could be a shortrun effective measure to lower the emissions level. Also, further research should be conducted on how to effectively and efficiently manage the population growth-CO 2 emissions relationship.

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The objective of this paper is to answer an empirical question regarding whether wood fuel consumption and institutional quality affect forest degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. To accomplish this, a sample of 45 sub-Saharan African countries covering 2005-2013 was employed. Also, the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) approach was used to estimate the specified model. The results indicated that wood fuel consumption significantly contributed to forest degradation in the region. On the other hand, control of corruption and government effectiveness were negatively related to forest degradation. This suggests that effective control of corruption and governance can contribute to lowering forest degradation in the region. Forest degradation aided by wood fuel consumption can be lessened by effective control of corruption and governance. Thus, policy makers should (1) provide adequate and affordable (or subsidized) modern fuels to the populace, especially rural dwellers, (2) intensify the fight against corruption, and (3) ensure effective governance.

This article investigated the impact of human capital and technology on economic growth in Nigeria. We employed annual time series data for the period of 35 years and applied autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration to examine the relationship between human capital, technology, and economic growth. Two proxies of human capital (secondary and tertiary school enrollments) were used in two separate models. The cointegration result revealed that all the variables in the two separate models were cointegrated. Furthermore, the results of the two estimated models showed that human capital in form in secondary and tertiary school enrollments have had significant positive impact on economic growth. More so, technology also shows significant positive impact on economic growth. In a nutshell, both human capital and technology are important determinants of growth in Nigeria. Therefore, improvement of the educational sector and more funding for research and development (R&D) to encourage innovations are needed to facilitate Nigeria's sustained economic growth.

This study examines the three-way linkage relationships between CO emission, energy consumption and economic growth in Malaysia, covering the 1975-2015 period. An autoregressive distributed lag approach was employed to achieve the objective of the study and gauged by dynamic ordinary least squares. Additionally, vector error correction model, variance decompositions and impulse response functions were employed to further examine the relationship between the interest variables. The findings show that economic growth is neither influenced by energy consumption nor by CO emission. Energy consumption is revealed to be an increasing function of CO emission. Whereas, CO emission positively and significantly depends on energy consumption and economic growth. This implies that CO emission increases with an increase in both energy consumption and economic growth. Conclusively, the main drivers of CO emission in Malaysia are proven to be energy consumption and economic growth. Therefore, renewable energy sources ought to be considered by policy makers to curb emission from the current non-renewable sources. Wind and biomass can be explored as they are viable sources. Energy efficiency and savings should equally be emphasised and encouraged by policy makers. Lastly, growth-related policies that target emission reduction are also recommended.

This study estimates the impact of wood fuel consumption on economic growth in 19 sub-Saharan African countries over the 1979-2017 period. The study employs dynamic macro-panel estimators, which comprises pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effects (DFE). The estimated result reveals that PMG is the most efficient estimator among the three estimators based on the Hausman h-test. The results from PMG model reveal that wood fuel consumption has significant negative impact on economic growth. Also, when an interaction term between labor and wood fuel consumption was included in the model and estimated, the coefficient of wood fuel consumption yields negative and significant coefficient. This suggests that the interaction term has a negative and significant effect on economic growth. These results unveil that wood fuel consumption negatively and significantly affect economic growth, both directly and indirectly. The policy recommendations from this study are as follows: (1) Governments of these countries should provide adequate and affordable modern fuels to the populace; especially rural dwellers to decrease the use of wood fuel for cooking and heating (2) policy makers should intensify awareness campaign on the risk and danger wood fuel poses to economic growth so as to discourage its use and (3) policy makers should provide adequate solar powered stoves and solar-powered room heaters as cheap substitutes to the use of wood fuel for cooking and heating. These recommendations will assist in negating the negative effects of wood fuel consumption on economic growth of the region.