Public economics

Finance

Business

Accountability

Government (linguistics)

Good governance

Corporate governance

Biology

Politics

Literature

Epistemology

Philosophy

Project governance

Political science

Order (exchange)

Economics

Ecology

Environmental governance

Rule of law

Quality (philosophy)

Language change

Linguistics

Development economics

Sustainability

Economic system

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

This study assesses whether improving governance standards affects environmental quality in 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000–2012. The empirical evidence is based on generalized method of moments. Bundled and unbundled governance dynamics are used, notably: (i) political governance (consisting of political stability and “voice and accountability”); (ii) economic governance (entailing government effectiveness and regulation quality), (iii) institutional governance (represented by the rule of law and corruption-control); and (iv) general governance (encompassing political, economic, and institutional governance dynamics). The following hypotheses are tested: (i) Hypothesis 1 ( improving political governance is negatively related to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions); (ii) Hypothesis 2 ( increasing economic governance is negatively related to CO 2 emissions); and (iii) Hypothesis 3 ( enhancing institutional governance is negatively related to CO 2 emissions). Results of the tested hypotheses show that the validity of Hypothesis 3 cannot be determined based on the results; Hypothesis 2 is not valid, while Hypothesis 1 is partially not valid. The main policy implication is that governance standards need to be further improved in order for government quality to generate the expected unfavorable effects on CO 2 emissions.

Enhancing governance for environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa