Information communication and technology, and environmental degradation in Africa: a new approach via moments

This study contributes to the ICT-environment literature by examining the impact of ICT on the environmental degradation of 29 African nations from 2000 to 2018. The study builds its approach on the Stochastic Impacts Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework, while the novel method of moments quantile regression and Dumitrescu and Hurlin Granger causality test are used as estimation techniques. The study's findings suggest that fixed telephone and mobile cellular subscriptions increase both carbon and ecological footprint across all the quantiles. However, internet penetration negatively impacts carbon and ecological footprint in all quantiles. Furthermore, a bidirectional causality between ecological footprint and ICT was found. The study concludes that the region's policymakers can leverage the benefit of internet penetration to achieve sustainable development. Besides, the consumption and production associated with fixed telephone and mobile cellular subscriptions should be re-examined.