Citation: Yang, L.; Bashiru Danwana, S.; Issahaku, F.-l.Y. Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Africa: The Role of Renewable Energy Consumption, Natural Resources, and Government Effectiveness—Evidence from Symmetric and Asymmetric ARDL Models. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8038. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138038 Academic Editors: Fei Fan and Song Wang Received: 26 May 2022 Accepted: 27 June 2022 Published: 30 June 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Africa: The Role of Renewable Energy Consumption, Natural Resources, and Government Effectiveness—Evidence from Symmetric and Asymmetric ARDL Models Li Yang 1 , Sumaiya Bashiru Danwana 1, * and Fadilul-lah Yassaanah Issahaku 2 1 School of Economics and Management, Anhui University of Science and Technology, No. 168 Taifeng Road, Huainan 232001, China; y321212@163.com 2 School of Mathematics and Big Data, Anhui University of Science and Technology, No. 168 Taifeng Road, Huainan 232001, China; issakafadil@gmail.com * Correspondence: bdsumaiya@gmail.com Abstract: This study investigates the symmetric and asymmetric linkages within environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint (EFP), natural resources (NRR), renewable energy consumption (REC), urbanization (URB), human capital (HC), and government effectiveness (GE) in 27 African countries divided into two subgroups (ecological deficit countries and ecological reserve countries) over the period 1990 to 2018. The study employs the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to investigate the symmetric (linear) effect and the nonlinear auto-regressive distributed lag (NARDL) model to study the asymmetric (nonlinear) effects of the variables on EFP. Results of ARDL show that a 1% increase in REC is projected to reduce ecological footprint by 0.17 and 0.2% in ecological deficit and ecological reserve countries. A 1% increase in NRR is estimated to increase ecological footprint by 0.02% in ecological deficit countries but has no impact on the environment in countries with ecological reserves. Similarly, a 1% rise in GE is estimated to increase EFP by 0.04% in Africa but has no impact on the environment in ecological deficit countries. NARDL estimations decomposed REC into positive (negative) shocks, which show that a 1% increase (decrease) in REC is projected to decrease EFP by 0.16% (0.13%) in countries with ecological reserves. Similarly, a positive (negative) shock in NRR is expected to decrease EFP in ecological reserve countries and increase EFP in ecological deficit countries. Results of the Wald tests prove the existence of long-run asymmetry among the variables. The findings indicate that renewable energy consumption enhances environmental quality, while economic growth and natural resource rents reduce environmental quality in Africa over the sampled period. Keywords: environmental sustainability; ecological footprint; renewable energy; government effec- tiveness; natural resources; Africa; ARDL 1. Introduction The concept of sustainability requires that the production of goods and services fulfills present demands without jeopardizing the potential to satisfy the needs of future genera- tions [1]. The environment is a finite resource; a healthy environment benefits the ecosystem and all life. Therefore, to sustain the planet, our ecosystem, and all life on it, it is critical that environmental resources be appropriately managed and preserved. In recent years, fighting environmental degradation has been a key priority for advanced and emerging countries [2,3]. Environmental degradation has posed a danger to the economic well-being of the entire world, as it is linked to the success of various macroeconomic factors [4]. Over the last two decades, research has contributed significantly to society by demonstrating how human beings influence global ecosystem changes [5–8]. The effects of human activities Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8038. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138038 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph