Analysis of fossil fuel consumption and socioeconomic drivers of respiratory disease mortality in G7 countries: an ARDL and VAR model approach.

This study investigates the impact of environmental, social, and economic factors on air pollution and respiratory disease mortality in the G7 countries by autoregressive distributed lag and vector autoregressive models. The analyzed key variables include non-renewable energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, gross domestic product, urbanization, life expectancy, and public health expenditure. This study tested three hypotheses: (i) non-renewable energy use is associated with higher mortality from respiratory diseases, (ii) economic and demographic factors influence respiratory mortality rates, and (iii) public health spending mitigates pollution-related mortality. The findings show that non-renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are significantly correlated with increased mortality from diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancers of the trachea, bronchus, and lung. While a stable gross domestic product correlates with lower mortality, unplanned urbanization increased deaths. Additionally, life expectancy was linked to higher mortality due to prolonged exposure to environmental risks. Increased public health expenditure reduced deaths associated with air pollution. This study underscores the critical need for integrated public health and environmental policies, particularly in urbanized areas, to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals focused on health, sustainable cities, and climate action. This study furthers the understanding of how targeted interventions in energy, health, and urban policy can collectively reduce respiratory disease mortality and support sustainable development.