Infant mortality rate and nonrenewable energy consumption in Asia and the Pacific: the mediating role of carbon emissions

This study aligns with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 which aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. It contributes to the nascent literature stream on energy-health dynamics by introducing a holistic theoretical model to empirically examine the mediation effect of carbon emissions on the relationship between nonrenewable energy and infant mortality rate. Using an unbalanced panel data on 42 Asia and the Pacific countries from 2005 to 2015 and deploying the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, the empirical results are surmised as follows: (i) for the full sample, nonrenewable energy indirectly increases infant mortality rate through increasing carbon emissions. In other words, carbon emissions play a partial mediation role between nonrenewable energy and infant mortality rate; and (ii) for the different income groups, carbon emissions show varying mediation effects. For example, the mediation effect of carbon emissions in lower-middle and upper-middle income countries are found to be similar to those of the full sample of countries. Therefore, based on these findings, we conclude that nonrenewable energy is an essential determinant of infant mortality rate. Policy recommendations are put forward.