Can Africa–China cooperation influence African green growth to truly alleviate undernourishment? Evidence of the quadruple mediating effect

Climate change has significantly threatened the global economy and increased the risk of food insecurity. Despite humanitarian efforts, African countries continue to face huge challenges related to global warming and deep undernourishment to reach a sustainable future. In this respect, China and Africa engage in bilateral exchanges to overcome these difficulties. However, exploring sustainable partnerships between China and Africa is a complicated and multifaceted topic, notably in the green economy and treating undernourishment, which needs more pertinence scientific research. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the combined effect of eco‐innovation, Chinese investment, and trade on green growth while simultaneously addressing the issues of undernourishment in the context of Africa–China cooperation. This study applies the generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze a sample of 26 African countries over 11 years. This paper finds that eco‐innovations and FDI positively impact green growth, with p‐values below .046. The study reveals that Chinese exports have a detrimental effect on green growth, with p‐values below .033. This paper shows that green growth has a positive impact on undernourishment. This research finds a quadruple mediating effect of green growth between its driving factors and undernourishment. Therefore, our findings demonstrated that China's growing involvement in Africa, mainly through exporting natural resources, is likely to impede the attainment of sustainable development goals. However, countries can still gain from FDI and import sustainable products from China. Lastly, policymakers must consider the importance of the increasing interaction between China and Africa to achieve sustainable growth and reduce undernourishment.