Environment, Development and Sustainability, cilt.25, sa.4, ss.3299-3322, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.This study examines the impact of industrial structure on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with emphasis on the activities of secondary and tertiary industries and the role of information and communication technologies and economic freedom. We focus on explaining consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions in a selection of African economies over the period 1995–2017, accounting for possible heterogeneity in the distribution of both measures of CO2 emissions using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression approach for handling fixed effects in panel quantile models. The results show that (i) industrial output increase territorial-based CO2 emissions and have stronger impact in countries with more extractive industries; (ii) services reduce consumption-based CO2 emissions and the impact is significant across the entire quantile distribution; (iii) the use of fixed (wired) and analogue telephone technologies increases consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution; (iv) the use of mobile telephone and internet technologies reduces consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution; (v) increased economic freedom decreases territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution. Overall, our findings highlight the role of mobile telephone and internet penetration, restructuring towards service-based economy and economic freedom in promoting cleaner production and sustainable consumption patterns in African economies.