How do air quality, economic growth and energy use affect life expectancy in the Republic of Kazakhstan?

Air pollution is an environmental issue leading to illness and premature death. This study examines the impact of air pollution, energy use and economic growth on life expectancy. For this purpose, we collected data from 1990 to 2022 from the Republic of Kazakhstan because air pollution contributes to more than 10,000 premature deaths yearly in Kazakhstan. Based on unit root results, the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is applied to compile the results for empirical analysis. We found that energy use and air quality have an inverse relationship with life expectancy in the long run. At the same time, economic growth and population have a positive and significant impact on life expectancy. Moreover, health expenditure has an insignificant effect on life expectancy. The short-term results align with long-term results except for energy use, which has a negligible impact on life expectancy. We have applied the Granger causality test to check the robustness of earlier findings. The results of the Granger causality test also confirmed the bidirectional causal relationship among LAP and LEU, LEG and LAP, and LHEXP and LAP. Based on these findings, it is suggested that the Kazakhstan government should adopt measures to increase the usage of renewable energy resources and reduce air pollution to uplift the standard of living.