Environmental preservation amidst carbon emissions, energy consumption, and urbanization in selected African countries: implication for sustainability

On the quest for a clean and sustainable environment, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 stipulates the need to reduce carbon emissions, decarbonize the energy system, improve energy consumption and ensure the attainment of sustainable energy. In the same vein, SDG 9 pertains to the prevention of environmental degradation, promoting biodiversity and preserving the ecosystem to support inclusive human and economic development. Given the hazardous impact of carbon emissions, if left unabated, and the benefits of preserving nature’s ecosystem, the motivation for this study hinges on analyzing factors that threaten a sustainable environment using two proxies of environmental degradation: carbon emissions and ecological footprint.