This article examines the effect of commercial bank performance on an indicator of energy efficiency (i.e. energy intensity) while controlling for the mediating effect of political institution. To achieve this goal, the study develops a theoretical model based on the neoclassical theory of the firm that links energy efficiency to bank sector development, and a unique bank-based data by Andrianova et al. (2015) for 43 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1998 to 2012.

The current share of sub-Saharan Africa in global carbon dioxide emissions is negligible compared to major contributors like Asia, Americas, and Europe. This trend is, however, likely to change given that both economic growth and rate of urbanization in the region are projected to be robust in the future. The current study contributes to the literature by examining both the direct and the indirect impacts of quality of institution on the environment.

Analysis of the unconditional impacts of foreign direct inflows (FDIs) and industrialization on energy intensity does not show the hidden roles of some economic conditions such as income and trade openness. In this study, we focused on the conditional impacts of FDIs and industrialization on energy productivity using a panel data consisting of thirteen (13) East African countries covering 1980–2011. The baseline result shows that higher income and a well-integrated economy are pro-energy productive, but FDIs and intense industrialization are anti-energy productive in the sub-region.

This paper provides a holistic literature review of climate change and variability in Ghana by examining the impact and projections of climate change and variability in various sectors (agricultural, health and energy) and its implication on ecology, land use, poverty and welfare. The findings suggest that there is a projected high temperature and low rainfall in the years 2020, 2050 and 2080, and desertification is estimated to be proceeding at a rate of 20,000 hectares per annum. Sea-surface temperatures will increase in Ghana’s waters and this will have drastic effects on fishery.

This paper investigated the short-run causal relationships and the long-run equilibrium relationships among carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, technical efficiency, and industrial structure for three African countries. Using Bounds cointegration approach the result showed evidence of multiple long-run equilibrium relationships for Ghana and Senegal but a one-way long-run equilibrium relationship for Morocco. The result from the Toda and Yomamoto granger causality test showed a mix of bidirectional, unidirectional, and neutral relationships for all countries.

Although a large number of studies have examined the price spillover in global oil and agricultural commodity markets, very little is known about the volatility of transmission between energy and wine prices in South Africa. The South African wine industry practices a form of industrialised agriculture that relies heavily on energy inputs to not only grow grapes but also process and distribute

This paper examines ethnic differences in fuelwood consumption in rural households, using an original survey dataset from two western Chinese provinces with large ethnic minority populations. We use a Heckman two-stage selection model to explain the quantity of fuelwood consumed conditional on a decision to use fuelwood. We find that ethnic minority families are more likely than majority Han Chinese families to use fuelwood.