West Africa's Socioeconomic Conditions: Analysis of the Development Outcomes of Climate Change Vulnerability

ABSTRACT Mounting climate and environmental crises remain a key challenge for West African countries. More vulnerabilities among West African populations seem to have been created due to increased uncertainty and lack of confidence to invest in the business environment. In view of this, the study explores the impact of climate change vulnerability on per capita GDP/income in the West African context over the period 2000–2023. Using pooled mean group (PMG) estimator and panel non‐causality test, climate change vulnerability index has an adverse impact on both per capita GDP and gross national income (GNI) per capita in the long run. This suggests that high susceptibility to climate risks is likely to reduce the availability of economic resources, exacerbating poor development outcomes in the long term. Findings further stress that increased climate vulnerability could amplify existing inequalities and other socioeconomic problems. The study also recognizes that the associated challenges of the levels of climate vulnerability and socioeconomic conditions are interconnected, as these indicators could reinforce each other based on the evidence of bidirectional causality between them. It is emphasized that the prevailing socioeconomic conditions, particularly in West Africa, can be strongly linked to climate phenomena. Growth and income gains are unlikely to be sufficiently high in the face of rising susceptibility to changing weather patterns, generating renewed socio‐economic concerns. Hence, it is recommended that more equitable and effective responses to climate change in terms of mitigation and adaptation measures are imperative and be fully motivated towards desired socioeconomic outcomes across the West African sub‐region.