URBANIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN CAMEROON: AN AUTO-REGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG MODEL TECHNIQUE

The relationship between urbanisation and the environment has elevated much public attention recently. Therefore, this study examined the effect urbanisation has on environmental sustainability in Cameroon using time series data from 1991 to 2018. To establish this, the study adopted the STIRPAT framework, the Principal Components Analysis and Autoregressive Distributed Lag Technique for data analysis. The models were tested for stationarity by applying the Phillip-Peron test. Results indicated that urbanization and trade openness had positive and significant effects on environmental sustainability in the long-run but negative in the short-run, thus, supporting an inverted U-shaped EKC. The study therefore, recommended that Cameroon revisits its trade policies and urban planning strategies and implement policies that will discourage dirty technology and encourage technological innovations (green) so as to improve energy efficiency which will go a long way to improve environmental sustainability. JEL: R10; R51; Q01 Article visualizations