Integrating Energy, Environment, and Education: Reducing Health System Pressures for Sustainable Development in Emerging Economies

ABSTRACT Coping with the environment and the increasing pressures on health among citizens has not helped the emerging economies maintain economic growth. The rise of industries and an increase in energy consumption have increased CO 2 emissions and environmental destruction, thereby increasing healthcare burdens. The paper will examine the impacts of the use of renewable energy (REN), education (EDU), ecological footprint (ECF), economic growth (GDP), and CO 2 on healthcare spending in the Next Eleven (N‐11) from 2000 to 2023. The findings indicate very measurable and evident effects using FMOLS and DOLS estimators. This means that a 1% increase in the percentage of REN use could decrease health expenditure by approximately 0.18% and increase EDU by approximately 0.12%. Conversely, a 1% rise in CO 2 emissions equipotently increases healthcare spending by 0.30%, and using a greater ECF, the same growth raises healthcare spending by 0.16%. There is an GDP that is linked to increasing health spending, which is a measure of growing demand and environmental pressures. These results provide useful information to policymakers: intensifying renewable sources of energy to reduce health expenditure on illnesses, reinforcing the EDU systems in favor of healthy and ecologically responsible conduct, and embracing concerns of the environment and health in national growth prospects. All these measures can contribute to decreasing spending on healthcare, alleviating the threats to the ecological environment, and moving forward to SDG 3, SDG 7, and SDG 13.