Energy poverty, air quality, and health expenditures in Africa: a triple burden on sustainable development

作者：Chao Li, Ridwan Lanre Ibrahim, Abdulrahman Alomair, Abdulaziz S. Al Naim · 发表于：International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1080/13504509.2025.2540629 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Energy and Environment Impacts、Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies、Energy, Environment, Economic Growth

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces a triple development burden – energy poverty, environmental degradation, and rising health expenditures – that threatens progress across the core dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study investigates how energy poverty and air pollution are associated with health, economic, and social outcomes in 45 SSA countries from 2000 to 2023. Specifically, it models out-of-pocket health expenditure (SDG 3), income per capita (SDG 8), and life expectancy (SDGs 3 & 10) as outcome variables. Using cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), the findings reveal that energy poverty and air pollution are significantly associated with higher health costs, lower income, and reduced life expectancy across the distribution – particularly in countries with weaker governance. The interaction between energy poverty and control of corruption suggests that institutional weaknesses intensify these vulnerabilities. In contrast, renewable energy, technological innovation, and financial inclusion are linked to more favorable development outcomes, especially in higher quantiles and better-governed countries. Subgroup analyses confirm that institutional context moderates the development impact of energy and environmental stress. These findings provide policy-relevant insights for improving governance, promoting clean energy, and strengthening health system resilience in SSA.