Drivers of Carbon Emissions in Kenya: The Perspective of Technology

Abstract

The empirical studies have portrayed from a different perspective that technology, foreign direct investment (FDI), and economic growth have diverse outcomes on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. African economies specifically Kenya are currently threatened with more CO2 emissions for which proper strategies need to be adopted to reduce and mitigate this situation. To address this issue, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique was utilized, differentiating between the long-term and short-term effects of drivers of CO2. Granger causality was applied to analyze the causality between the series. The study uses time series data for Kenya from 1990 to 2022. The short-run and long-run results indicate a negative relationship between technology and carbon emissions. Specifically, an increase in technology reduces carbon emissions while an increase in economic growth and FDI inflow increases carbon emissions. The study has identified the negative nexus between technology and carbon emissions in Kenya. This means that technological innovation can increase labour productivity and utilization of resources, thereby reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, Kenya should increase research and utilization of low and efficient carbon technologies to decouple economic growth from environmental pollution. Based on the result, various strategies have been proposed, including using different clean technologies to produce renewable fuels. FDI that complies with environmental regulations, and the use of advanced green and clean technologies can help mitigate the negative impact of technological progress on the environment. Additionally, technological progress, particularly in information and communication technology, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve environmental quality.