Fossil Energy Consumption, Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Adult Mortality Rate in Nigeria

Abstract

The health implications of fossil energy consumption and carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions remain a global concern. This study examines the effect
of fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions on adult mortality rate in
Nigeria. The study relies on the Health Production Function and utilises
the Autoregressive Distributed Lag technique to analyse time series data
from 1980 to 2019. The results of the estimated model show that fossil energy
consumption reduces adult mortality rates in the short run, while co2
emissions increase adult mortality rates both in the short and long run.
In addition, government health expenditure follows an inverted U-shape
relationship in explaining adult mortality while foreign direct investment
has a U-shape relationship with adult mortality in Nigeria. Trade openness
and monetary policy are insignificant in the short and long run. It
is recommended that the government should substitute clean energy for
fossil fuel energy to improve the quality of life, strengthen CO2 emissions
tax and ensure health funds are used for the improvement of healthcare
service delivery in Nigeria.