Eco-friendly environment in Cameroon: Does an increase in fossil fuel energy consumption influence economic growth?

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between fossil fuel consumption and economic growth in ensuring energy conservation steps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels for a friendly environment in Cameroon covering the period of 1996–2013. The Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) were used for the analysis. The results of long-run coefficients using the ARDL model show a significant and negative relationship between fossil fuel energy consumption, government effectiveness, and economic growth while foreign direct investment (FDI) is not statistically significant but affects economic growth positively. The results of DOLS show a negative and non-significant relationship of fossil fuel energy consumption and government effectiveness, while FDI is statistically significant but affects economic growth positively. In light of the link between fossil fuel consumption and economic growth, it can be assumed that the shift from fossil fuel consumption to renewable energy will be not harmful to economic growth. Therefore, the government must shortly shift to renewable-based energy consumption by designing, implementing, and following up effective policies to promote investment in the renewable energy sector, thereby reducing challenges linked to climate change and global warming.