Social Impacts Due to Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions. Evidence From Sub-Sahara African Countries (SSA) Compared to Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN).

Abstract

The recent climatic phenomena observed in developing countries since the 2000s have raised concerns, fears, and debates within the international community and economists. Human activities are largely responsible for atmospheric warming through their emissions of CO2 and polluting substances with dramatic consequences and numerous losses of human life in some countries. Using panel data covering the 2000-2016 period, this study investigated the social vulnerability due to the CO2 emissions through an empirical study of CO2’s determinants in selected countries of sub-Sahara African and Southeast Asian countries. The STIRPAT model gave out the result that; explanatories causes of carbon dioxide emissions are different in the two regions: the agriculture-forestry and fishing value-added, and human development index have a strong explanatory power on CO2 emissions in the ASEAN countries, the per-capita domestic product has a positive and significant influence on carbon emissions in the SSA countries, ceteris paribus, but was statistically insignificant in the ASEAN countries. The growing population decreases carbon emissions in the SSA selected countries while is not statically significant in the ASEAN countries. There is therefore a kind of double penalty: those who suffer, and will suffer the most from the impacts of climate change due to CO2 emissions, are those who contribute the least to the problem. These results provide insight into future strategies for the mitigation of climatic hazards already present in some places and potential for others which will be felt on different scales across the regions. Some of the inevitable redistributive effects of those risks can be corrected by providing financial support to the poorest populations hardest hit by natural disasters.