Page 13 - GHES-3-1

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Energy consumption and life expectancy in West Africa

provides a framework to understand the interactions that disaggregating energy use into renewable and non-
between environmental factors and human health. It is based renewable energy use is essential when analyzing African
on several key assumptions that guide its application and countries; lumping them together will yield deceptive
interpretation. In the context of environmental health, one results as the transition to renewable energy use in
prominent assumption is that the environment influences Africa is slow. Using fixed effects and threshold models,
health outcomes to a large extent (Gatz et al., 2020). Wang et al. (2023) examined whether renewable energy
improves life expectancy in 121 countries worldwide.
2.2. Empirical literature They revealed that renewable energy positively affects life
Empirical studies (regional, international, cross-country, expectancy; however, the impact of renewable energy on
and country-specific) on whether energy consumption life expectancy varies across different income levels. Using
affects life expectancy are reviewed below. cross-sectional ARDL, Polcyn et al. (2023) examined
whether energy consumption improved life expectancy
2.2.1. Cross-country studies in Africa from 1997 to 2019 in 46 Asian countries. They found that
Using panel data from 16 African countries, Youssef et al. an increase in healthcare spending and energy use results
(2015) investigated the causal relationship between energy in improved health outcomes in the long run and that CO
2
consumption and health indicators from 1971 to 2010. emissions are detrimental to health. They concluded that
The study found that there is a strong causal relationship increasing health spending, energy consumption, and
between energy consumption and health outcomes in long-term economic growth will improve health outcomes.
several African countries and this causal relationship is Using the Driscoll-Kraay standard error technique, Ebhota
unidirectional flowing from electricity consumption to et al. (2023) investigated the impact of renewable energy
health outcomes. Using autoregressive distributed lag consumption, air pollution, and economic development on
(ARDL), Agbanike et al. (2019) extended the study of life expectancy in Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey;
Youssef et al. (2015) to examine the link between energy they found a positive and significant relationship between
consumption and life expectancy in Africa from 1971 renewable energy consumption and life expectancy with a
to 2014; they found that although energy consumption one-way causation – from renewable energy consumption
significantly improves life expectancy in Africa, it also to life expectancy. In contrast, in a panel study of emerging
generates CO emissions that diminish life expectancy Asian economies, Anser et al. (2022) investigated the
2
in the long run. Aderinto (2023) further explored the impact of energy use, economic activities, and greenhouse
connection between energy consumption and health gas emissions on health outcomes from 1995 to 2018;
outcomes in West African countries using pooled mean they found that fossil fuel consumption and natural
group and ARDL and found that in the short run, non- resource depletion harm human health while the use of
renewable energy has a negative effect on life expectancy efficient energy improves health outcomes. Sargentis et al.
while renewable energy has a positive and significant (2021a) examined the water–energy–food nexus and land
effect. development in Thessaly Plain, Greece; they found that
energy use is strongly correlated with life expectancy and
2.2.2. Cross-country studies in other regions per capita gross domestic product (GDP). They further
Using generalized additive proportional hazards and observed considerable inequalities in per capita energy
nonlinear models, Weitensfelder et al. (2024) investigated use among countries. For instance, in countries with high
the effect of energy consumption, energy distribution, and GDP, transport and heating account for the largest share of
clean energy use on life expectancy and found that a certain energy use, whereas in countries with low GDP, cooking
level of wealth and energy use is necessary for health accounts for the largest share of energy consumption. This
and well-being; however, beyond a specific threshold, finding strongly suggests that income level is an important
additional energy consumption has no beneficial effects. factor in the nexus between energy consumption
They further showed that life expectancy and per capita and life expectancy. In another study, Sargentis et al.
energy consumption increase over time but the increase is (2021b) showed that technological development
more pronounced for life expectancy. The approach used positively correlates with increased inequality. However,
by Weitensfelder et al. (2024) is typical of the approach technological development also offers a better and longer
used by studies conducted in developed countries. Per life to all community members. Therefore, an increase
capita energy consumption increases with life expectancy in technological advancement comes with an increase in
as most developed countries use cleaner energy than energy consumption, which affects quality of life. They
what is used in West African countries (i.e., fossil fuels asserted that GDP per capita positively correlates with
and traditional biomass). Aderinto (2023) demonstrated energy consumption; thus, GDP per capita can be expected

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3518