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The impact of energy consumption on environment and public health in China

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Abstract

Fossil energy consumption is one of the main reasons for the deterioration of environmental pollution and decline in public health. This paper tests for the long-run and short-run relationship among energy consumption, environment pollution and public health using the autoregressive-distributed lag approach in China for the period 1985–2014. The study used energy consumption variables (i.e., the proportion of coal consumption, that of oil and clean energy, abbreviated as PCC, POIL and PCE, respectively), environmental pollution ones (i.e., SO2 emissions, abbreviated SO2, soot and dust emissions,), two health proxies (i.e., the proportion of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases mortality, abbreviated as PCD and PRD, respectively). These variables were selected due to vital importance in China. The overall results indicate that there was co-integration relationship under the study with statistically significantly positive relationship between environmental pollution and energy consumption, public health and environmental pollution in the short and long run. Comparing the long-run and short-run coefficients of energy use variable with respect to SO2 and soot indicates that the long-run coefficients are the same as the short-run. The long-run coefficients of soot and dust emissions with respect to PCD and PRD, respectively, are higher than the short-run coefficients. This implies that environment pollution level is found to worsen with respect to fossil energy use presently and over time, while public health level descending with reference to soot and dust emission over time in China. The Granger causality results suggested a unidirectional Granger causality between energy use and environment pollution, environment pollution and public health. The results emphasized the importance of energy transformation and sustainable development policies that help to adjust the structure of energy consumption and to improve public health level.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to colleagues who patiently reviewed this article. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 16BJY058). Sincerely appreciate Dr. Jian-Xiu Wang at Management Science and Engineering, Shanxi University Finance and Economic for her correcting English grammar and sentence structure and kind help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Center, Taiyuan University, Taiyuan, 030032, People’s Republic of China

    Wei-Hua Qu

  2. School of Economics & Management, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Beijing, 102617, People’s Republic of China

    Ling Xu

  3. Management Science and Engineering, Shanxi University Finance and Economics, Taiyuan, 030006, People’s Republic of China

    Guo-Hua Qu & Jian-Xiu Wang

  4. School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Jun Yan

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  1. Wei-Hua Qu
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Correspondence to Wei-Hua Qu, Ling Xu or Guo-Hua Qu.

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Qu, WH., Xu, L., Qu, GH. et al. The impact of energy consumption on environment and public health in China. Nat Hazards 87, 675–697 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2787-5

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