Relationship between CO2 emissions, health care costs and human development index in Shanghai member countries

During periods of high economic growth, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increase sharply and governments inevitably increase health care costs. The aim of the present study is to investigate the bidirectional relationship between health care costs, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and human development index (HDI) in a member country of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for the period 2000-2020, using a panel vector autoregression model. The results showed that the largest share is due to the impulse of health care costs related to itself, and the largest share is due to the impulse of CO2 emissions and human development index related to research and development costs. The results of the causal relationships showed that there is a one-way causal relationship between health care costs and CO2 emissions, indicating that CO2 emissions significantly increase health care costs for SCO countries. In addition, health care expenditures and HDI also show a positive two-way relationship, as these two variables reinforce each other. There is a two-way causal relationship between CO2 emissions and HDI, which indicates that high CO2 emissions significantly affect the human development of Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries. In this regard, it is suggested that measures such as adopting sustainable development policies, developing clean technologies, educating and improving people's awareness, developing human capital and international cooperation in the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should be adopted to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.