ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.

Sec. Environmental Economics and Management

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1624721

This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches to Smart and Sustainable Urban Development in the Global SouthView all articles

Accelerating Sustainable Transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Clean Energy, Digitalization, Foreign Direct Investment, and Industrialization

Provisionally accepted
Abdikafi  Hassan AbdiAbdikafi Hassan Abdi1*Mohd Azlan  Shah ZaidiMohd Azlan Shah Zaidi2Mandeq  Abdullahi HassanMandeq Abdullahi Hassan1Seadya  AhmedSeadya Ahmed1
  • 1SIMAD University, Mogadishu, Somalia
  • 2Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces growing pressure to align economic progress with environmental sustainability, as the region contends with climate stress, industrial expansion, and resource-driven growth. Yet, there remains a limited understanding of the combined influence of clean energy, digitalization, FDI, and industrial development on the region's sustainable transition. Accordingly, this study explores the association between clean energy usage, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, digitalization, industrialization, urbanization, and environmental sustainability across 38 SSA countries from 2001 to 2020. Drawing on econometric techniques-including the pooled mean group estimator and method of moments quantile regression-the analysis affirms the transformative potential of renewable energy, which significantly reduces both ecological footprints and environmental pollution. FDI demonstrates dual effects while fostering technological improvements, yet it amplifies ecological footprints through resource-intensive investments. In addition, economic growth is consistently related to increased emissions and ecological impact. Strikingly, digitalization proposes promising pathways for sustainability, while industrialization and urbanization exacerbate environmental challenges. The quantile regression results reveal that the magnitude of these effects varies across different levels of environmental impact, and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test affirms bidirectional causalities in at least one cross-section. Considering these findings, sustainable development in SSA requires prioritizing renewable energy adoption, regulating FDI to align with environmental goals, integrating sustainability into economic and industrial policies, and expanding digitalization for smarter resource management.

Keywords: digitalization, Foreign direct investment, Industrialization, Renewable Energy, Urbanization, ecological footprint, Environmental Pollution

Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Abdi, Zaidi, Hassan and Ahmed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Abdikafi Hassan Abdi, SIMAD University, Mogadishu, Somalia

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.