Societal Impacts of Renewable Energy Consumption and Transport CO2 Emissions in New Zealand

Life expectancy and mortality rates are important indicators of public health and societal well-being, which are heavily influenced by environmental and economic factors. This study estimates the impacts of renewable energy consumption, transportation CO2 emissions, and other variables on life expectancy and mortality in New Zealand using the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulations methodology during 1972–2022. The findings indicate that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption and household expenditure leads to rises in life expectancy of 0.03% and 0.005%, respectively, in the long run. Urbanisation can also boost life expectancy in the long run by 0.43% if its value rises by 1%. However, if CO2 emissions from the transport sector rise by 1% in the long run, it will contribute to a 0.07% decrease in life expectancy. However, the short-run results show that trade household expenditure, public health expenditure, and renewable energy consumption increase life expectancy, while capital formation and transport CO2 emissions reduce it, but with lower impacts. The mortality results show that trade, public health expenditures, urbanisation, and renewable energy consumption can reduce mortality in the long run by 0.59%, 0.52%, 16%, and 0.66%, respectively, when their values increase by 1%, while transport CO2 emissions increase it by 1.6%. However, capital formation can decrease mortality in the long run. It declines mortality by 0.21% when increased by 1%. These findings suggest the crucial role of renewable energy consumption and public health expenditure in decreasing mortality rates and improving life expectancy in New Zealand. Policymakers must prioritize these variables to achieve meaningful improvements in public health outcomes.