Decoupling Economic Growth and Carbon Footprint: An Empirical Analysis of Ghana's Export Sector, Manufacturing, and Renewable Energy Adoption.

The prospect of decoupling economic development from CO₂ emissions in Ghana is examined in this paper, with an emphasis on the manufacturing, export, and adoption of renewable energy sectors. The paper investigates the long-term and short-term correlations among CO₂ emissions, renewable energy consumption (RNE), population growth (POP), manufacturing value-added (MVA), Economic growth (GDP), and exports (EXP) using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing method using time series data from 1990 to 2020. The outcomes show that the variables are long-term cointegrating. Long-term GDP and CO₂ emissions show a positive but negligible correlation, whereas exports show a negative and insignificant correlation. In the near term, using renewable energy has a markedly undesirable consequence on releases, yet, over time, the connection is positive and negligible. Because the turning point when economic expansion results in lower emissions is not apparent, the Environmental Kuznets Curve concept is not entirely substantiated. The report emphasizes how specific laws encouraging the use of renewable energy, environmentally friendly export and manufacturing processes, and technical advancements are necessary to help Ghana move toward a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]