Advancing Sustainable Development: Empirical Insights on Energy Poverty in ECOWAS Through Green Financing, Technological Innovation and Economic Empowerment

Energy poverty is a new issue in the world and the developing nations are no exception. The West African nations exhibit serious problems on the accessibility and affordability of energy in rural areas and in urban areas. The major concern is the conventional fuels that they widely use as alternatives once faced with energy access problems. These fuels damage the surroundings and deteriorate the health systems of people. Therefore, this study is motivated in addressing the energy poverty issues in West African nations and informing vigorous mechanisms that are essential in solving this crisis. The lack of studies and the lack of robust policies to inform ways that can be adopted to lower energy poverty in this region require new contemporary studies to be presented. Thus, this study examines the interplay of green finance, income and technology in reducing energy poverty in West African nations. The fourteen West African nations are therefore examined and their data for the period 2004 to 2020 are used. Data analysis methodologies adopted ensure the employment of the “method of moments quantile regression” technique to ensure that problems of “cross-sectional dependence” and “heterogeneity” are overcome. Our findings shows that energy poverty in West African nations could be lowered with advancements in technology, utilization of green finance and improvements in the income levels in this region by magnitudes of 17 to 21 units, 0.15 to 0.82% and 0.39 to 1.47 units, respectively. The income generated from the natural resources and foreign direct investment inflows fails to reduce energy poverty and worsens it by magnitudes of 0.33 to 0.48 units and 0.12 units, respectively. Therefore, we show that improvements in institutional quality and the adoption of green technological tools are key to reducing energy poverty.