Energy Transition, Human Development and Energy Justice in the Southern Countries

Energy poverty deteriorates the human capital and the growth potential in the developing and emerging countries. We estimate the long-run effect of electricity access, modern renewable energy consumption, and traditional renewable energy consumption on human development (index). We use an AutoRegressive Distributed Lag/ARDL model based on pooled mean group estimation for a panel of 44 southern countries, representing three energy-poor regions of the world over the period 1990-2018. By distinguishing two groups of countries according to their level of HDI, we show that it exists a positive and significant relationship between electricity access and human development in countries with low and medium HDI and a positive effect of modern renewable energy on the level of human development in countries with higher HDI. In addition, the estimations reveal a significant negative effect of conventional renewable energy use on human development for the two countries groups.