The role of environmental mitigation technology and energy productivity in reducing air pollution-related premature deaths: insights from the top 20 polluted economies

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution is a substantial environmental source of premature death and disease globally. The present study explores the association between PM2.5 air pollution, premature deaths (PMD), energy productivity (EP), environmental mitigation technology (EMT), environmental-related tax (ERT), and renewable energy consumption (REC) for the top 20 most polluted economies over the period 1990 to 2020 by using numerous econometric techniques such as panel co-integration, Augmented Mean Group (AMG), Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimations methods. the findings reveal that (i) PM2.5 air pollution has caused 10% of premature deaths annually (ii), EMT, ERT, and REC mitigate PM2.5 air pollution by 0.092%, 0.015%, and 0.001%, respectively. Notably, energy productivity plays a key role among all the factors in decarbonizing and effectively transforming the energy sector towards greener production and consumption, especially when combined with environmentally friendly technological advancements. To check the robustness of the outcomes, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), and the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) models were used and confirmed that the study findings are reliable and robust. To obtain efficient mitigation objectives, the selected top 20 pollutant economies are likely to benefit from a shift to renewable energy, facilitated by improvements in energy productivity and the advancement of environmentally friendly technologies in the near future.