Li Chao, Xia Yuxin, Wang Lin
Business School, Shandong University, No. 180 Wenhuaxi Road, Weihai, 264209, China.
HSBC Business School, Peking University, Shenzhen, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Mar;31(12):18030-18053. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-27676-w. Epub 2023 May 22.
The lack of access to clean energy remains one of the major challenges in the global energy sector. Access to clean, sustainable and affordable energy, outlined in the seventh Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7) of the United Nations, plays a crucial role in advancing health (SDG 3), as unclean cooking energy may endanger people's health by causing air pollution. However, due to endogeneity problems such as reverse causality, the health consequences of environmental pollution caused by unclean fuel usage are difficult to be scientifically and accurately evaluated. This paper aims to systematically assess the health cost of unclean fuel usage based on tackling endogeneity, using the data from Chinese General Social Survey. The ordinary least squares model, ordered regression methods, instrumental variable approach, penalized machine learning methods, placebo test, and mediation models are applied in this research. Analytical results demonstrate that households' unclean fuel use significantly damages people's health. Specifically, the use of dirty fuel leads to an average of about a one-standard-deviation decline in self-rated health, demonstrating its notable negative effect. The findings are robust to a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. The impact mechanism is that unclean fuel usage reduces people's self-rated health through increasing indoor pollution. Meanwhile, the negative effect of dirty fuel use on health has significant heterogeneity among different subgroups. The consequences are more prominent for the vulnerable groups who are female, younger, living in rural areas and older buildings, with lower socio-economic status and uncovered by social security. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken to improve energy infrastructure to make clean cooking energy more affordable and accessible as well as to enhance people's health. Besides, more attention should be paid to the energy needs of the above specific vulnerable groups faced with energy poverty.
无法获取清洁能源仍然是全球能源领域的主要挑战之一。联合国第七个可持续发展目标（SDG 7）中所概述的获取清洁、可持续且负担得起的能源，在促进健康（SDG 3）方面发挥着关键作用，因为不清洁的烹饪能源可能通过造成空气污染危及人们的健康。然而，由于诸如反向因果关系等内生性问题，使用不清洁燃料所导致的环境污染对健康的影响难以得到科学且准确的评估。本文旨在利用中国综合社会调查的数据，在解决内生性问题的基础上，系统评估使用不清洁燃料的健康成本。本研究应用了普通最小二乘法模型、有序回归方法、工具变量法、惩罚性机器学习方法、安慰剂检验和中介模型。分析结果表明，家庭使用不清洁燃料会显著损害人们的健康。具体而言，使用劣质燃料会导致自评健康平均下降约一个标准差，显示出其显著的负面影响。这些发现经过一系列稳健性和内生性检验后依然成立。影响机制是，使用不清洁燃料通过增加室内污染降低了人们的自评健康。同时，使用劣质燃料对健康的负面影响在不同亚组之间存在显著的异质性。对于女性、年轻人、居住在农村地区和老旧建筑中、社会经济地位较低且未纳入社会保障的弱势群体而言，后果更为突出。因此，应采取必要措施改善能源基础设施，使清洁烹饪能源更具可负担性和可及性，进而增进人们的健康。此外，应更多关注上述面临能源贫困的特定弱势群体的能源需求。
