title: Energy-water-food nexus under financial constraint environment: good, the bad, and the ugly sustainability reforms in sub-Saharan African countries.
abstract: Environmental sustainability agenda are generally compromised by energy, water, and food production resources, while in the recent waves of global financial crisis, it mediates to increase the intensity of air pollutants, which largely affected the less developing countries due to their ease of environmental regulation policies and lack of optimal utilization of economic resources. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are no exception that majorly hit by the recent global financial crisis, which affected the country's natural environment through the channel of unsustainable energy-water-food production. The study employed panel random effect model that addresses the country-specific time-invariant shocks to examine the non-linear relationship between water-energy-food resources and air pollutants in a panel of 19 selected SSA countries, for a period of 2000-2014. The results confirmed the carbon-fossil-methane environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that turned into inverted U-shaped relationships in a panel of selected SSA countries. Food resources largely affected greenhouse gas (GHG), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions while water resource decreases carbon dioxide (CO2), fossil fuel, and CH4emissions in a region. Energy efficiency improves air quality indicators while industry value added increases CO2emissions, fossil fuel energy, and GHG emissions. Global financial crisis increases the risk of climate change across countries. The study concludes that although SSA countries strive hard to take some "good" initiatives to reduce environmental degradation in a form of improved water and energy sources, however, due to lack of optimal utilization of food resources and global financial constraints, it leads to "the bad" and "the ugly" sustainability reforms in a region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Wah, Quaid Avenue, Wah Cantt, Pakistan. Khalid_zaman786@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Khalid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.affiliation: Center of Undergraduate Studies for Girls Olaysha, College of Business Administration, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sadaf
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shamsuddin
authors.affiliation: Department of Management Sciences, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Islamabad Campus, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mehboob
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmad
mesh_terms: D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D000352:Africa, Northern; D000393:Air Pollutants; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D057231:Climate Change; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D008697:Methane; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D008697:Methane
keywords: Air pollutants; Energy resources; Environmental Kuznets curve; Food production; Improved water source; Sub-Saharan African countries