Pathways to Carbon Neutrality: The Role of Environmental Governance, Environmental Technology, Renewable Energy Transition, and Economic Policy Uncertainty in Africa

ABSTRACT As climate change and environmental deterioration continue to escalate due to substantial CO 2 emissions, nations worldwide are implementing approaches to alleviate CO 2 emissions and accomplish carbon neutrality (CNE) goals. The current study examined CNE objectives for five selected nations in Africa, spanning from 1990 to 2022. This paper assessed the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), renewable energy transition (RET), environmental technology (ENT), and environmental governance (ENG) on CNE. The paper employed the Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), DOLS, as well as the Fixed Effects regressions. The findings of the paper show that RET assists in enhancing the CNE objectives in the chosen five African countries. Furthermore, the paper's results show that ENG, ENT, and environmental policy uncertainties are disruptive to CNE progress. Accordingly, the pairwise Granger causality outcomes indicated a unidirectional causality between ENG, ENT, and CNE, whereas there exists a bidirectional causality between EPU, RET, and CNE. Lastly, this research offers policymakers, governments, and stakeholders with valuable recommendations and insights for fostering resilience and ecological quality in the understudied African region.