Urbanization, renewable energy, and carbon dioxide emissions: a pathway to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in sub-Saharan Africa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate sustainable green economy in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1990–2019 using a quantile regression approach, considering the nexus between urbanization, economic growth, renewable energy, trade and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Design/methodology/approach The study used a dynamic panel quantile regression to investigate the conditional distribution of CO2 emissions along the turn-points of urbanization, economic growth, renewable energy, trade and the regressors via quadratic modeling specifications. Findings The main findings are established as follows. There is strong evidence of the Kuznets curve in the nexus between urbanization, economic growth, renewable energy, trade and CO2 emissions, respectively. Second, urbanization thresholds that should not be exceeded for sustainability to reduce CO2 emissions are 0.21%, and 2.70% for the 20th and 75th quantiles of the CO2 emissions distribution. Third, growth thresholds of 3.64%, 3.84%, 4.01%, 4.36% and 5.87% across the quantiles of the CO2 emissions distribution. Fourth, energy thresholds of 3.64%, 3.61%, 3.70%, 4.02% and 4.34% across the quantiles of the CO2 emissions distribution. Fifth, trade thresholds of 3.37% and 4.47% for the 20th and median quantiles of the CO2 emissions distribution, respectively. Practical implications The empirical shreds of evidence offer policy implications in such that building sustainable development and environment requires maintaining the critical mass, not beyond those insightful thresholds to achieving sustainable development and environmentally friendly SSA countries. Social implications Sustainable cities and communities in an era of economic recovery path COVID-19 mitigate greenhouse gas. The policy relevance is of particular concern to the sustainable development goals. Originality/value The study is novel considering the extant literature by providing policymakers with avoidable thresholds for policy formulations and implementations in the nexus between urbanization, economic growth, renewable energy and trade openness.