Existing studies have widely examined the link between energy consumption, economic growth, and CO2 emissions regionally and globally across development levels. Very few studies conducted at the African level overlooked the difference in regions and income levels of the countries involved in the research. This study empirically examined the long-run impact of energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on CO2 emissions across regions and income levels over 50 African countries from 1980 to 2018. The most recent panel estimators, causality test, and impulse response and variance decomposition analysis were employed. The findings from panel estimators revealed that renewable energy consumption contributed to mitigating CO2 emissions, while energy intensity promoted emissions across regions and income levels, and at the African level. Economic growth affected CO2 emissions negatively at the African level but the effect was mixed across regions and income levels. The causality test confirmed bi-directional causations between CO2 emissions and its determinants in African, and some regions and income levels. Again, unidirectional causation was highly supported across regions and income levels. Moreover, results of impulse response and variance decomposition analysis showed that both energy intensity and economic growth counted higher variations of CO2 emissions, while renewable energy highly contributed to reducing emissions within 10 years. Our findings grasp new insight into country development, income levels, and regions for regional and government policymakers related to effectively mitigate CO2 emissions. •We focus on factors affecting CO2 emissions in African countries over 38 years.•CS-DL, causality, and variance decomposition were employed.•Renewable energy consumption reduces CO2 emissions.•Energy intensity promotes emissions across regions and income levels.•Economic growth insignificantly influences emissions in subgroups.