Short-term dynamics and long-term relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth in Nigeria: an ARDL approach with breaks.

This paper investigates the short-term dynamics as well as the long-term relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth in Nigeria, taking breaks into account. The techniques employed include Shahbaz-Omay-Roubaud unit root test with sharp and smooth breaks and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with breaks. The results revealed that natural gas consumption is positively related to growth both in the short-term and long-term but only significant in the latter. However, there is evidence of bidirectional causality in the long-term and unidirectional causality in the short-term, from growth to natural gas consumption. The implication of the findings is that natural gas is a contributing factor to the growth of the Nigerian economy, and any energy policy aimed at increasing the consumption of natural gas could lead to the increase in economic growth and that Nigerian authorities could adopt energy conservation policies in the short-term so as to take the issue of global warming into consideration. Therefore, the paper recommends stepping up efforts to increase natural gas consumption by building more gas storage facilities, pipeline installations, exploring alternative energy sources, raising awareness/enlightenment about the uses of natural gas, suitability in its use, economic and environmental benefits of its use, ensuring its affordable availability, and beeping up security against pipelines vandalization. Moreover, in the short-term, the country could enact energy conservation policies to combat global warming.

Impact of socio-demographic factors on the mitigating actions for climate change: a path analysis with mediating effects of attitudinal variables.

Socio-demographic factors play a significant role in increasing the individual's climate change awareness and in setting a favorable individual attitude towards its mitigation. To better understand how the adversative effects of climate change can be mitigated, this study attempts to investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors on the mitigating actions of the individuals (MAOI) on climate change. Qualitative data were collected from a face-to-face survey of 360 respondents in the Kuala Lumpur region of Malaysia through a close-ended questionnaire. Analysis was conducted on the mediating effects of attitudinal variables through the path model by using the SEM. Findings indicate that the socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, education, income, and ethnicity can greatly influence the individual's awareness, attitude, risk perception, and knowledge of climate change issues. The results drawn from this study also revealed that the attitudinal factors act as a mediating effect between the socio-demographic factors and the MAOI, thereby, indicating that both the socio-demographic factors and the attitudinal factors have significant effects on the MAOI towards climate change. The outcome of this study can help policy makers and other private organizations to decide on the appropriate actions to take in managing climate change effects. These actions which encompass improving basic climate change education and making the public more aware of the local dimensions of climate change are important for harnessing public engagement and support that can also stimulate climate change awareness and promote mitigating actions to n protect the environment from the impact of climate change.