Green Investments for Blue Planet: Assessing Climate Finance Effects on Natural Resource Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigates the effectiveness of climate finance in protecting natural resources across 20 African countries from 2006 to 2021. Using robust methods to address endogeneity and distributional heterogeneity, the results show that climate finance significantly enhances conservation, a finding consistent across alternative green finance measures. Renewable energy consumption also promotes protection, whereas GDP growth and industrialisation degrade resources. Crucially, climate finance is beneficial regardless of a nation’s initial conservation level. The study concludes that scaling climate funding is vital for Africa’s environmental sustainability, provided strategies are tailored to address economic and institutional disparities.