Clean Energy Consumption and Human Welfare in Nigeria: Implication for the Sustainable Development Goal 7

Abstract

Over the time, in driving human welfare in Nigeria, the country has been consuming little clean energy relative to other sub-Saharan African nations. This has raised a critical concern for the policymakers and scholars in the recent times. As such, this study estimated the relationship between clean energy consumption and human welfare in Nigeria from the period of 2000 to 2020, this study employed a Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares, with the following conclusions emanated from the study. Clean energy consumption and human welfare had an insignificant negative relationship in Nigeria. Health expenditure and human welfare had a significant negative relationship. Population growth and human welfare had a significant inverse relationship in Nigeria. However, standard of living contributed a positive and significant contribution to human welfare in Nigeria. By and large, clean energy consumption did not contribute to an improvement in human welfare in Nigeria. In the light of the above, this study recommends that whenever the policymakers in Nigeria wish to achieve some substantial level of human welfare in the country, policies that will drive affordable clean energy SDG-7 in the country should be embarked upon.