The Impacts of Population Change and Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions in Nigeria

he main aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of population total, gross domestic product per capita, urbanization rate and energy use on carbon emissions in Nigeria for a period of 1981-2015 using autoregressive distributed lag approach to co-integration (ARDL). The empirical results revealed evidence of a long run relationship among the variables. The generalized ridge regression was used to correct the presence of multicollinearity among the explanatory variables in the long-run. Results show that population total, gross domestic product per capita, urbanization rate and energy use have a positive impact on carbon emissions. Energy use and urbanization both contributed significantly to increasing carbon emissions in the long and short run respectively. Considering the fact that the factors investigated in this study are of the increasing trend in this nation there is a need to implement policies to curb the increasing rate of carbon emissions in Nigeria.