Exploring the capacity of renewable energy consumption to reduce outdoor air pollution death rate in Latin America and t
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Exploring the capacity of renewable energy consumption to reduce outdoor air pollution death rate in Latin America and the Caribbean region Matheus Koengkan 1 & José Alberto Fuinhas 2
&
Nuno Silva 2
Received: 14 May 2020 / Accepted: 12 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The impact of renewable energy consumption on reducing the outdoor air pollution death rate, in nineteen Latin America & the Caribbean countries, from 1990 to 2016, using the econometric technique of quantile regression for panel data, was researched. Results show that economic growth and fossil fuel consumption are positively related to CO2 emissions, while renewable energy consumption bears a negative relationship with it. Furthermore, fossil fuel consumption has a positive impact on the mortality rate and economic growth a negative one. The negative effect of renewable energy consumption on the mortality rate is only observable on the right tail of its distribution. The modelisation reveals two ways in which the consumption of renewable energy can reduce the outdoor air pollution death rates: (i) directly, by increasing renewable energies, and (i) indirectly because the increase in the consumption of renewable energies implies a decrease in the consumption of energy from fossil fuels. The phenomenon of increasing urbanisation is a point where the action of public policymakers is decisive for the reduction of outdoor air pollution death rates. Here, the question is not to reduce the level of urbanisation but to act on the “quality” of urbanisation, to make cities healthier. The research concludes that public policymakers must focus on intensifying the transition from fossil to renewable energies and improving the quality of cities. Keywords Econometrics . Environmental economics . Health economics . Macroeconomics . Pollution . Renewable energy
Introduction Air pollution is a problem that is responsible for more than 5 million deaths each year in the World (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) 2018). Moreover, the air pollution problem according to Romieu et al. (1990) is a combination of outdoor and indoor gases (e.g. household air pollution particulates, ammonia, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, ambient fine particulate matter, and lead). Indeed, according to Ritchie and Roser (2020) and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) (2018), these Responsible editor: Lotfi Aleya * José Alberto Fuinhas [email protected] 1
Rectory, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
2
CeBER, and Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal
gases, when emitted into the atmosphere, are responsible for many of the leading causes of death (e.g. lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, respiratory infections, stroke, and heart disease). The impact of air pollution on premature mortality and disease revealed
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