Do renewable energies moderate the effect of climate vulnerability on women's socioeconomic well-being? Evidence from African countries

Purpose – The role of renewable energy is increasingly seen as a means of promoting women's economic participation and improving their health by rebalancing climate degradation. Design/methodology/approach – To shed light on this relationship, we assess the capacity of renewable energy to reduce the negative impact of climate vulnerability on women's economic empowerment and health, using the GMM estimator for 36 African countries over the period 1990-2021. Findings – The empirical results show that: (i) climate vulnerability reduces economic empowerment and (ii) climate vulnerability increases child mortality. These results are mitigated by the use of renewable energy. (iii) The use of renewable energy mitigates the negative impact of climate vulnerability on women's economic empowerment. (iv) Renewable energy use also reduces the pressure of climate vulnerability on child mortality. In addition, we take into account regional heterogeneities and find distinct effects. Our results remain stable after further robustness testing. Originality/value – Renewable energy thresholds are provided at which climate vulnerability no longer reduces women’s socio-economic wellbeing.