Impact of CO2 emission on life expectancy in India : an autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound test approach

As a developing country, one of the important objectives of India is to accelerate economic growth. This has a considerable impact on CO2 emission. Life expectancy has a probable connection with CO2 emission in two opposite ways. Given technological status, more CO2 emission consequents upon more production of output and higher income level which is likely to affect the life expectancy of people in a positive way. Conversely, CO2 emission is one of the important air pollutants that may reduce the span of human life. This paper aims to investigate the net impact of CO2 on life expectancy in India. Furthermore, the study seeks to search whether India has surpassed the optimal limit of CO2 emission in relation to life expectancy. Using World Bank time series data for the period 1991-2018 and applying ARDL cointegration technique, the study concludes the existence of a long-run and quadratic relationship between life expectancy and CO2 emission. The study finds that India has already surpassed its optimal atmospheric concentration of CO2 and thereby suggests adopting CO2 reduction strategies.