Fossil Fuel Dependency and Respiratory Health Indicators in South Asia: A Multi‐Country Analysis Supporting <scp>SDG</scp> 3, <scp>SDG</scp> 7, and <scp>SDG</scp> 13 Integration

ABSTRACT We examine how fossil fuel use and access to clean household energy jointly shape chronic respiratory disease (CRD), health expenditure (HE), and, ultimately, GDP. We aim to quantify the direction and magnitude of these relationships to inform integrated energy–health–macro policy. Using panel data from 1990 to 2024 linking fossil fuel consumption, access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking/heating, CRD burden, health expenditure per capita, and GDP, we specified a multivariate regression framework and an MLP model to capture potential nonlinearities. Features were standardized, and the models were trained with early stopping and evaluated via out‐of‐sample MAE and R 2 . We conducted robustness checks with alternative lags and country‐income stratifications. Moreover, greater access to clean fuels is consistently associated with lower CRD prevalence and slower health expenditure growth, with effects strongest in lower‐income settings. Fossil fuel intensity correlates with higher CRD and elevated health expenditure, partially offsetting near‐term GDP gains. The MLP uncovers nonlinear thresholds benefits accelerate once clean access exceeds ~70%, while CRD and health expenditure rise disproportionately when fossil intensity surpasses ~1.5× the sample median, indicating that the results are robust to lags and stratifications. It is suggested that accelerating clean energy access and improving fuel efficiency can reduce CRD and bend the health expenditure cost curve while sustaining GDP via productivity gains. Coupling energy transitions with primary care and air‐quality policies yields fiscal space and more resilient, inclusive growth.