Energy poverty and public health vulnerability: A multi-country analysis

Member countries of the United Nations have pledged to ensure access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy for all by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 7). However, energy poverty continues to be a significant challenge for billions of people. Empirical research established a connection between energy poverty and traditional public health indicators such as overall mortality rate, but relatively little is known about its holistic impact on public health and in particular on health vulnerability. This research establishes a holistic measure of public health using panel data from 143 countries between 2000 and 2016 to analyze the impact of energy poverty on health vulnerability. Using Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS), fixed effects, system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), and quantile regression approaches, our results show that reducing energy poverty mitigates health vulnerability. Energy poverty amplifies the susceptibility to negative health outcomes (sensitivity) and diminishes a population's capacity to respond to public health crises (resilience). The analysis also reveals a heterogeneous impact of energy poverty on health vulnerability associated with the socio-economic development level of the region, with the largest increase being in more developed and high-income regions.