Testing the Environmental Phillips Curve in Africa: How Gender‐Disaggregated Unemployment and Renewable Energy Shape the Load Capacity Factor

ABSTRACT The study examines a gender‐disaggregated Environmental Phillips Curve (EPC) hypothesis and the role of renewable energy (REC) on environmental sustainability across 48 African countries (2000–2021) using the Load Capacity Factor (LCF). The study leverages the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), Instrumental Variable Two‐Stage Least Square (IV‐2SLS) and the Dumitrescu–Hurlin (2012) causality test. The results validate the EPC across different quantiles, revealing notable gender heterogeneities in the unemployment–environmental sustainability nexus, with male unemployment exerting larger, earlier effects. REC significantly improves environmental sustainability; conventional energy use and globalisation undermine it. Economic growth depicts a U‐shape nexus with LCF, confirming the Load Capacity Curve. Bidirectional causality connects LCF to all unemployment proxies, REC, economic growth, globalisation and energy use. Managerially, this study recommends that governments and relevant stakeholders should integrate renewable energy expansion with gender‐sensitive labour policies to advance SDGs 5, 7, 8 and 13, rather than treating employment and environmental sustainability separately.