Exploring the interrelationship among health status, CO2 emissions, and energy use in the top 20 highest emitting economies: based on the CS-DL and CS-ARDL approaches

• Published in: Air quality, atmosphere and health atmosphere and health, 2023-07, Vol.16 (7), p.1419-1442
• Main Authors: Sohail, Ali, Du, Jinfeng, Abbasi, Babar Nawaz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative energy; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Climate change; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic development; Economic growth; Economics; Emissions; Empirical analysis; Energy; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Error correction; Expenditures; Green economy; Health care expenditures; Health economics; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Heterogeneity; Public health; Renewable energy; Steering; Surface temperature; Sustainable development; Temperature rise
• ISSN: 1873-9318; 1873-9326
• DOI: 10.1007/s11869-023-01350-z

Carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 e) which is caused by energy use contributes to the global average surface temperature increase by 1.5 °C as compared to the mid-1800s which is causing a certain change in the climate and becoming an adverse effect on health and economy. The relationship between health status, CO 2 e, and energy use has yet to be thoroughly investigated in the top 20 highest emitting economies. The data from 2000 to 2019 is analyzed by using advanced techniques of cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) and cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) which take into consideration crucial elements of panel data, namely dynamics, heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. Moreover, cross-sectional augmented error correction method (CS-ECM) and the common dynamic process of the augmented mean group (AMG) are applied for robustness checks. The empirical findings revealed that (i) CO 2 e weakens the health status only in the short-run, whereas health expenditure improves the health status in the both short- and long-runs, while economic growth is not contributing to the health status in the both short- and long-runs; (ii) health expenditure and economic growth only help to mitigate CO 2 e in the long-run, whereas energy use causes CO 2 e in the both short- and long-runs; (iii) energy use causes high economic growth in the both short- and long-runs, whereas CO 2 e aids economic growth in the short-run but is extremely damaging to economic growth in the long-run, while in the both short- and long-runs health expenditure is not aiding the economic growth. This study provides policy recommendations on improving human health by advocating massive health expenditures, CO 2 e easing, promoting renewable energy use or low-emission energy, and steering the economy toward green economic growth. Graphical abstract