Analysing the Impact of Carbon Emissions and Non-renewable Energy Use on Infant and Under-5 Mortality Rates in Europe: New Evidence Using Panel Quantile Regression
Abstract The concentration of greenhouse gas emissions is considered to increase, and this can undermine the access to basic resources that are necessary for leading a healthy life such as access to food, water, health and environment. Environmental health is closely linked to human health and the world is witnessing an exponential increase in the trend of the greenhouse gas emissions which pose significant threat to both the environment and human health. Hence, this study contributes to the health-environment discourse and uses an unbalanced panel data on 46 European countries from 2005 to 2015 to investigate the impact of carbon emissions and non-renewable energy on infant and under-5 mortality rates. Consistent findings from static and dynamic analyses reveal that: (1) carbon emissions exhibit mortality-inducing properties; (2) non-renewable energy show mortality-reducing properties; (3) persistency in mortality rates exist; (4) the exacerbating (reducing) impact of emissions (non-renewable energy) dwindles (increases in absolute values) at higher distributions of mortality rates; and (5) Euro Union countries show lower mortality rates relative to non-Euro Union members. Policy recommendations are discussed.JEL Classification: I00, I10, I15, I18, I19