Effects of Energy Consumption, Agricultural Trade and Productivity on Carbon Emissions in Nigeria: A Quantile Regression Approach

The focus of the investigation was to examine the effects of energy consumption, Agricultural commerce and productivity on CO2 emission in Nigeria. The output of the research revealed that the impact of agricultural raw materials imports (AGRIM) and export on carbon footprints is positive. There is prevalence of a set of notable percentiles differences in the conditional distribution of the variables on CO2 emission. Initially, the coefficient of energy consumption (EnCons) was high but constantly nosedived from the 25th quantile till it got to the 90th quantile when it picked again the same was the case of AGRIM. Thus, a 1% increase in Agricultural import will bring about 0.0047 - significant unit increase in CO2 emission in Nigeria from the 0.3829 coefficient in the 10th quartile to 0.2644 coefficient in the 50th quantile thereafter the effects becomes insignificant. Profound significant variance across disparate percentiles in the conditional spread of AGRIM, food production index (FPI), CPI and FDI. It further showed that the outcome of the regressors on carbon emissions are varied over quantiles. Overall, AGRIM and EnCons reflects the positive and significant level of impact Agricultural raw materials imports have on carbon emission. However, on the extent of impact Agricultural raw material export had on CO2 emission, it is seen to be negatively significant across all 5 percentiles thus the relationship is inverse as the movement (transportation) of goods within a country prior to export involves a huge level of carbon release. The recommendation and policy implications are discussed in the work.