Air pollution and life expectancy in Europe: Does investment in renewable energy matter?

Examining the dynamics between economic development, tourism, renewable energy and life expectancy in the Nordic economies

As the world struggles with pressing issues like climate change and sustainable development, affecting health outcomes and environmental quality, the Nordic regionsare at the forefront of major global challenges. This paper investigates the role of human capital, renewable energy use, tourism, natural resources, and economic growth in shaping life in the Nordic region i.e., Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland).Utilizing panel data spanning from 1990 to 2020, the Driscoll and Kraay standard error (DSK) technique is employed to analyze this intricate interplay. The study reveals that in the Nordic context, sustainable economic growth, bolstered by investments in human capital and the widespread acceptance of renewable energy sources, has been positively associated with increased life expectancies. Furthermore, prudent management of natural resources has helped mitigate adverse health effects related to depletion, maintaining environmental and public health standards. The thriving tourism industry has also been shown to influence lifespan in this region positively. On the contrary, the empirical finding contended that an adverse correlation exists between carbon emissions and LEX. This research underscores the importance of a comprehensive and balanced approach that considers economic development, sustainable development, and public health in pursuing longer and healthier lives, providing valuable insights for policymakers and regions seeking to replicate these positive outcomes.The findings of this study are both conceptually reliable and empirically robust, providing important insights for the formulation of environmental and health policy.

Long-term remote sensing-based methods for monitoring air pollution and cloud cover in the Balkan countries

The use of remote sensing and GIS methodology has accelerated the processing of data on pollution, but has also raised a question about the accuracy of the same. The research focuses on four main air pollutants (CO, NO, SO2, O3), the data on which were obtained from satellite images of Landsat 8 and Landsat 9, for the period 2000-2020. The data on relative cloudiness were obtained from the database CHELSA (Climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas) for the period 1980-2010. All the data were further processed and analyzed through the procedures of numerical GIS analysis, multi-criteria analysis, supervised and unsupervised satellite classification, and pixel analysis. The results of the analysis of cloud cover in the Balkan region showed that the month with the highest cloud cover in this period was February, with the maximum of (93.18%), whereas the lowest cloud cover was in July (0.19%). The analyzed period (2000-2010) was in the middle range for the pollutants NO and SO2 and in the lower range for CO; O3. In the period 2010-2020, there were high concentrations of NO, SO2, and CO and low concentrations of O3. The most polluted cities in the last twenty years are Ordu (Turkey), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Bor (Serbia). Finally, two most extreme air pollutants in the territory of Balkan countries were SO2 and NO (2000-2020).

The dynamics of carbon emissions, energy, income, and life expectancy: Regional comparative analysis

This paper examines the linear effects of economic growth on carbon emissions and their impact on mortality and morbidity rates in specific regions sub-Sahara Africa, Middle-East and North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (SSA, MENA, ECA). By analyzing longitudinal data for 82 panels over 30 years, we investigate the relationships between energy usage, per capita GDP, life expectancy, and carbon emissions. Our estimation results show positive correlations between energy use, carbon production, and life expectancy in both the combined sample and individual regions. However, death rate has a negative relationship with carbon production in the combined sample, MENA, and SSA regions. Per capita GDP positively influences carbon emissions and life expectancy in the combined sample and ECA, MENA, and SSA regions. We also identify asymmetric relationships between per capita GDP and carbon production, with evidence supporting the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for the combined and ECA samples, and an N-trajectory for SSA. These findings emphasize the importance of region-specific approaches to sustainable development, considering the unique environmental and economic challenges each region faces. Policymakers should consider our research insights when designing policies to mitigate the negative impacts of economic progress on the environment.

Modelling the air pollution induced health effects of energy consumption across varied spaces in OECD countries: An asymmetric analysis

The air pollution-induced health effects of energy consumption remain a grey area in the extant literature. As of yet, there are very limited studies on the subject matter for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). To this end, we employ panel data from 1990 to 2019 for 37 OECD countries and panel estimation techniques that control for distributional asymmetry. We also utilize a composite variable of mortality and morbidity to capture the full spectrum of air pollution-induced health burdens. Our findings reveal that renewable energy ameliorates the health burden of air pollution in indoor spaces, evidence for the ameliorating effects of renewable energy in outdoor and occupational spaces was however weak. We also show that income has an ameliorating effect on air pollution-induced health burdens across all spaces and that the effect of non-renewable energy is asymmetric and disparate across all spaces. Furthermore, while technological innovation ameliorates the health burden of air pollution in indoor spaces, it exacerbates the health burden of air pollution in both occupational and outdoor spaces. These findings thus show that the positive health implications of renewable energy policy interventions have more traction in indoor spaces. Capacity needs to be built in the renewable energy sector to reduce the pollution-inducing health burdens emanating from ambient and occupational spaces.

The effect of environmental degradation on self-reported health: the role of renewable energy consumption

Although there are a number of studies in the literature that have explored the effect of environmental degradation on the subjective well-being and life satisfaction, no previous study has addressed the role of renewable energy consumption in examining the effect of environmental degradation on self-reported health. To this end, we employ a conditional mixed process (CMP) model, using a unique dataset that combines both micro-level data from the 6th (2010-2014) and 7th (2017-2022) Waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) database and macro-level data from the World Bank. Our study has several important empirical findings. First, while environmental degradation deteriorates self-reported health, social capital and health expenditure have a positive impact on self-reported health. Second, the share of renewable energy consumption in total final energy consumption has a statistically significant negative impact on environmental degradation. Third, urbanization has a deteriorating effect on environmental quality and the total number of people increases environmental degradation.

Do renewable energy sources improve air quality? Demand- and supply-side comparative evidence from industrialized and emerging industrial economies

This study is an attempt to comparatively analyze the impact of renewable energy sources on air quality represented by particulate matter 2.5 concentrations utilizing panel data of 60 countries which are divided into two sub-panels industrialized economies and emerging industrial economies over the period 2010-2019. The study adopts both demand- and supply-side approaches and hence renewable sources are handled in two different structures, i.e., renewable energy consumption and production. Empirical results from both demand- and supply-side regressions strongly confirm the positive impact of renewable sources on air quality in all country groups, meaning that higher renewable energy production and consumption bring about improvement in air quality. In addition, this positive impact of renewables on air quality turned out to be higher in emerging industrial economies than that in industrialized ones. To be more precise, as all control variables are considered, a 10% increase in the production of renewable energy sources brings about a 0.66% improvement in air quality in industrialized economies while its impact is a value of 1.33% in emerging industrial economies. On the other hand, a 10% increase in consumption of renewable energy sources leads to a 0.62% improvement in air quality in industrialized economies and a 1.97% improvement in emerging industrial economies. As for control variables, industrialization gives rise to an increase in air pollution in all country groups, whereas economic growth and trade openness function as favorable factors for air quality. Although population density improves air quality in industrialized economies, it is found as one of the main pollutant factors in emerging industrial economies. Overall results proved that renewable sources improve air quality by reducing particulate matter 2.5 concentrations. Therefore, these countries, especially emerging industrial economies, should replace primitive energy sources like fossil fuels with renewables to bring down environmental degradation up to a reasonable level and increasingly continue to invest in renewable energy domain to reach their environmental sustainability targets. The study also provides some additional policy implications.

Environmental pollution and life expectancy in Somalia: do renewable energy, urbanization, and economic growth matter?

Ensuring good quality of health and longevity became a topical for policymakers and academicians. Various determinants, including socio-economic factors, have been discussed in the literature. Nevertheless, the empirical studies on this issue are scanty in least-developed countries like Somalia where the health indicators are poor. In this regard, this undertaking examines the impacts of renewable energy, urbanization, environmental pollution, and economic growth on life expectancy in Somalia for the period straddling 1990-2016. The study uses a novelty machine learning method - Kernel regularized least square (KRLS) method. The empirical results indicated that renewable energy, economic growth, and urbanization are statistically significant; whereas, environmental pollution is statistically insignificant. Renewable energy, economic growth, and urbanization exert positive effects on life expectancy in Somalia and have increasing marginal effects. Besides, bidirectional causality between renewable energy and life expectancy, life expectancy and economic growth, and environmental pollution and life expectancy are established. Moreover, unidirectional causality from urbanization to life expectancy is also observed. The study suggests that a budgetary revision be made to sort out health-related concerns resulting from a lack of healthcare services and poor sanitation for improving the longevity of the people. Additionally, investments in clean energy are necessary as will improve health outcomes without compromising economic growth and life expectancy.

Renewable energy, technological innovation, carbon emission, and life expectancy nexus: experience from the NAFTA economies

One essential component that reflects the development of society and the economy of most countries is life expectancy (LEXP). Nevertheless, LEXP can be influenced by varying factors, including socioeconomic and medical factors. Therefore, this analysis's focal point and motivation is to explore how socioeconomic factors such as economic growth, technological innovation, carbon emission, human capital, and renewable energy affect LEXP. The study utilized panel data from 1990 to 2020 from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which consists of the USA, Mexico, and Canada. The initial test confirmed that the research series were stationary and cointegrated. Therefore, the research applied the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model to predict the paper's short- and long-term estimates. The empirical estimated model concluded that human capital, renewable energy, technological innovation, and economic growth boost life expectancy. Contrarily, the outcome espoused that carbon emission has an inverse association with LEXP. The causality test confirmed a unidirectional interaction between human capital, economic growth, technological innovation, and life expectancy. On the other hand, there is a bidirectional connection between carbon emission, renewable energy, and life expectancy. The research suggests that stakeholders and policy-makers strengthen and enforce air quality standards to reduce pollution from industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust and encourage using cleaner technologies to promote LEXP. The research outcome is empirically and theoretically consistent, providing an essential breakthrough for environment-health-energy and economic development policies.

The role of renewable energy consumption on environmental degradation in EU countries: do institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP matter?

In the face of climate change and environmental degradation, reducing emission of greenhouse gases has become a key factor for environmental sustainability. Therefore, the present research is intended to explore the roles of renewable energy consumption, institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP on carbon dioxide emissions in the 14 EU countries. In doing so, this study employed novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) using annual data from 2000 to 2019. Also, a number of other estimators were applied for robustness check including the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and the fixed effect ordinary least square (FE-OLS). The empirical findings indicate that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces CO₂ emissions across all quantiles (0.1-0.9). Furthermore, institutional quality and technological innovation improve environmental quality in 0.1-0.7 quantiles, although GDP enhances carbon emissions significantly in all quantiles. In addition, the FMOLS, DOLS, and FE-OLS results confirmed the MMQR results. The outcomes of this study suggest insights for the policymakers to mitigate carbon emissions through promoting innovative technologies for environmental protection and investing more in the development of renewable energy.

Contributions of cleaner production and end-of-pipe treatment to NOx emissions and intensity reductions in China, 1997-2018

The Chinese experience of economic development and environmental protection provides an important reference for developing countries. Although changes in aggregate NO_x emissions have been widely studied, there is a relative lack of studies analysing NO_x intensity changes and their related development strategies in China. This study attempts to identify the socioeconomic drivers and change patterns for both NO_x emissions and intensity considering the cleaner production and end-of-pipe treatments. Both structural decomposition analysis and structural path analysis were used to analyse the NO_x emissions/intensity changes at different levels and transmission layers in China in the last two decades (1997-2018). The results indicate that construction contributes the most to NO_x emissions/intensity, followed by transportation. The emission intensity effect is the primary driver of NO_x emissions/intensity reduction, which mainly benefits from end-of-pipe treatment and energy efficiency improvement. Especially, during 2012-2018, they decreased 11,916 Kt-NO_x and 8,103 Kt-NO_x emissions and aggregate embodied intensity by 43.2% and 29.8%, respectively. The final demand effect is the primary deterrent, which is attributed to investment and consumption effects. The critical sectors for future NO_x reduction are the construction and building materials industry, transportation and other services industry. The policy implications and recommendations for the future developments are discussed based on the study findings.

Relationship between health spending, life expectancy and renewable energy in China: A new evidence from the VECM approach

There has been a growing trend in health spending and renewable energy consumption in China over the past few decades, which has positive implications for health outcomes, such as life expectancy. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to empirically analyze the impact of health expenditures and renewable energy on life expectancy in China. We used the time series data from 2000Q1 to 2020Q4 and applied the VECM approach for the data analysis. The results of this study suggest a long run association between health spending, life expectancy and renewable energy. The increase in health spending improves life expectancy, while renewable energy consumption also positively affects life expectancy in China. Therefore, the government should allocate sufficient funding to the health sector in order to attain higher life expectancy in the country. In addition, the government should also provide incentives for the consumption and production of renewable energy, which could help to achieve the sustainable development goal and life expectancy.

Effects of globalization, energy consumption and ICT on health status in Australia: the role of financial development and education

Background

The outbreak of COVID-19 has alerted governments around the world, including Australia, to think seriously about the health issues. Life expectancy is one of such issues. Therefore, this study tries to reveal the effects of globalization, energy consumption, information and communication technology, financial development, education rate, and economic growth on life expectancy at birth in Australia.

Methods

Using the data period of 1990–2018, a series of econometric techniques: the Dickey-Fuller generalized least square test, Autoregressive Distributive Lag bounds test, fully modified ordinary least square method and the pairwise Granger causality test, are applied.

Results

The findings disclose that globalization, renewable energy use, information and communication technology, per capita gross domestic product, education rate, and financial development increased during this period but non-renewable energy use reduced life expectancy at birth. Unidirectional causal associations of the studied variables with life expectancy at birth are also revealed.

Conclusions

All the outcomes are relevant and useful for articulating an innovative policy in the health sector. The prime policy implication of this work is: the effective, efficient, and inclusive policies considering globalization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, information and communication technology, financial development, education rate, and economic growth should be formulated and executed for guaranteeing health status.

Gene Expression Changes Induced by Exposure of RAW 264.7 Macrophages to Particulate Matter of Air Pollution: The Role of Endotoxins

Despite the variable chemical and physical characteristics of particulate air pollutants, inflammation and oxidative stress have been identified as common mechanisms for cell damage and negative health influences. These effects are produced by organic components, especially by endotoxins. This study analyzed the gene expression profile after exposure of RAW 264.7 cells to the standard particulate matter (PM) material, NIST1648a, and PM with a reduced organic matter content, LAp120, in comparison to the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The selected parameters of cell viability, cell cycle progression, and metabolic and inflammatory activity were also investigated. Both forms of PM negatively influenced the parameters of cell activity. These results were generally reflected in the gene expression profile. Only NIST1648a, excluding LAp120, contained endotoxins and showed small but statistically significant pro-inflammatory activity. However, the gene expression profiling revealed strong pro-inflammatory cell activation induced by NIST1648a that was close to the effects of LPS. Changes in gene expression triggered by LAp120 were relatively small. The observed differences in the effects of NIST1648a and LAp120 were related to the content of organic matter in which bacterial endotoxins play an important role. However, other organic compounds and their interactions with other PM components also appear to be of significant importance.

Loss of life expectancy from PM2.5 in Brazil: A national study from 2010 to 2018

BACKGROUND

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 is proved to be linked with mortality. However, limited studies have estimated the PM2.5 related loss of life expectancy (LLE) and its changing trends. How much life expectancy would be improved if PM2.5 pollution is reduced to the new WHO air quality guideline (AQG) level is unclear.

METHODS

Data on deaths from all-causes, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were collected from 5,565 Brazilian municipalities during 2010-2018. A difference-in-differences approach with quasi-Poisson regression was applied to examine the PM2.5-years of life lost (YLL) associations and PM2.5 associated LLE.

RESULTS

The annual PM2.5 concentration in each municipality from 2010 to 2018 was 7.7 µg/m3 in Brazil. Nationally, with each 10 μg/m3 increase in five-year-average (current and previous four years) concentrations of PM2.5, the relative risks (RRs) were 1.18 (95% CI: 1.15-1.21) for YLL from all-causes, 1.22 (1.16-1.28) from cancer, 1.12 (1.08-1.17) from cardiovascular and 1.17 (1.10-1.25) from respiratory diseases. Life expectancy could be improved by 1.09 (95% CI: 0.92-1.25) years by limiting PM2.5 concentration to the national lowest level (2.9 µg/m3), specifically, 0.20 (0.15-0.24) years for cancer, 0.16 (0.11-0.22) years for cardiovascular and 0.09 (0.05-0.13) years for respiratory diseases, with significant disparities across regions and municipalities. Life expectancy would be improved by 0.78 (0.66-0.90) years by setting the new WHO AQG PM2.5 concentration level of 5 μg/m3 as an acceptable threshold.

CONCLUSIONS

Using nationwide death records in Brazil, we found that long-term exposure to PM2.5 was associated with reduced life expectancy from all-causes, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases with regional inequalities and different trends. PM2.5 pollution abatement to below the WHO AQG level would improve this loss of life expectancy in Brazil.

Impact of Environmental Quality on Health Outcomes in Saudi Arabia: Does Research and Development Matter?

Recent literature on the health impacts of CO₂ emissions suggests a variety of factors that may establish a more robust link. However, no previous study has explored the role of research and development (R&D) in explaining the nexus between CO₂ emissions and health outcomes. Using data for Saudi Arabia over the period 2000–2018, this paper investigates the ability of R&D (expenditures and environmentally related R&D) to reduce the incidence of emissions on population health outcomes, particularly infant mortality and life expectancy. We find (i) negative impacts of CO₂ emissions on health outcomes; (ii) R&D expenditures have a weak positive impact on health outcomes; (iii) additionally to their direct effects on health outcomes, R&D expenditures remarkably enhanced health outcomes through reducing per capita CO₂ emissions; (iv) R&D expenditures interact with CO₂ from electricity and heat production and from electricity and heat production to negatively influence health outcomes. Similarly, environmentally related R&D, measured by patents environmental-related technologies, interacts with per capita CO₂ emissions to negatively influence health outcomes. To address these negative impacts, we calculated the corresponding R&D thresholds. Policymakers in Saudi Arabia are therefore called to give more and more incentives for R&D to reduce emissions and then improve population health outcomes.

New Urbanization, Energy-Intensive Industries Agglomeration and Analysis of Nitrogen Oxides Emissions Reduction Mechanisms

With the deepening of urbanization and industrialization, as well as the exacerbation of energy consumption, China is facing a severe situation in which nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions reduction is imperative. In this study, it is aimed to put forward countermeasures and suggestions to reduce NOx emissions by analyzing the impact and mechanism of new urbanization, the agglomeration of energy-intensive industries and mutual interactions on China’s NOx emissions. By analyzing the data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2017, this paper adopted the system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) and intermediary effect model to introduce four variables, such as: energy efficiency, human capital, industrial structure and energy structure, which were for empirical analysis. From the results, it was shown that: (1) NOx emissions in China have an accumulated effect; (2) new urbanization inhibits NOx emissions, whilst the agglomeration of energy-intensive industries intensifies NOx emissions. New urbanization weakens the negative impact of the agglomeration of energy-intensive industries on NOx emissions reduction and, (3) among the impacts of new urbanization on NOx emissions, the energy efficiency and human capital reflect the intermediary effect mechanism. At the same time, in the impact of the agglomeration of energy-intensive industries on NOx emissions, the industrial structure and energy structure show the mechanisms of the intermediary effect and masking effect, respectively.