Integrating Health, Governance, and Climate Risk for Sustainable Carbon Productivity: A Quantile‐on‐Quantile Based Policy Assessment

ABSTRACT This study examines the nonlinear and distributional effects of healthy life expectancy, governance effectiveness, income per capita, energy use, and climate risk on carbon productivity in the Next Eleven (NEXT‐11) economies over the period 1990–2023. Aligning with SDG‐targeted structural variables, SDG 3 (Good Health and Well‐being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), the analysis employs a Quantile‐on‐Quantile Regression (QQR) framework to capture how these factors shape environmental efficiency across varying performance regimes. The findings reveal that life expectancy and governance significantly enhance carbon productivity in upper quantiles, income shows threshold‐dependent effects, and climate risk disproportionately impairs low‐performing economies. We further employ quantile‐based Granger causality to uncover directional relationships, revealing that income and governance significantly affect carbon productivity in low to median quantiles, while carbon productivity influences climate risk only in upper quantiles. These results underscore the importance of multidimensional, SDG‐aligned policy frameworks that integrate health investment, institutional reform, economic upgrading, and climate resilience to foster sustainable growth in emerging economies.