The study investigates if the environmental Kuznets curve hold in South Africa. It employed available annual time series data spanning for the years from 1961 to 2020 collected from World Bank data. The study employs a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to investigate the short run and long run relationship. The results revealed that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis hold in South Africa. The policy recommendations are that the policymaker must implement environmentally friendly economic growth to reduce environmental degradation in South Africa.

This study examines the challenges and opportunities of electricity generation from coal on growth of South African economy. The study utilizes the available annual time series data collected from secondary sources (World Bank) spanning for the period from 1971 to 2015. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and an Error Correction Model (ECM) to analyse the challenges and opportunities of coal-fired electricity generation on growth South African economy. Statistical results from revealed a positive statistically insignificant short run and positive statistically significant long run relationship between electricity generated from coal and economic growth in South Africa. The policy implication from this study is that the policy makers need to acknowledge the positive contribution of coal-fired electricity generation and revise policies on decommissioning of these powerplants. The policymakers should propose and implement policies that encourage coal-fired electricity generation in a way that is environmentally friendly as it boosts economic growth in South Africa.

This study investigates the relationship between electricity consumption and electricity supply on economic growth in South Africa for the period spanning from 1971 to 2014. The importance of this study is to reveal the short run and long run impact of electricity consumption and electricity supply on economic growth in South Africa. The study borrowed annual time series data from the World Bank online secondary source for the period from 1971 to 2014. Empirical results revealed a positive statistically significant short run relationship and a negative statistically insignificant long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. The results further reveal that renewable electricity has a short run negative statistically significant and positive statistically significant long-run relationship with economic growth in South Africa. Based on empirical results, it can therefore be recommended that the policymakers should implement policies that promotes renewable electricity generation and evaluate policies on electricity consumption so that it can significantly boosts economic growth in the long run.

This study analyses the relationship between CO2 emissions from electricity generation and economic growth in South Africa. The study utilises annual time series data spanning for the period from 1971 to 2014 sourced from the World Bank. The study employs a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to analyse the short run and long run relationships. Empirical results revealed that there is a negative statistically insignificant short run relationship and long run negative statistically significant relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in South Africa. The Granger causality results revealed noncausal relationship between CO2 and economic growth. The policy implication of this study is that Eskom and policy makers must propose and implement policies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from electricity generation as it will improve economic growth in South Africa.

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