Powering Minds, Empowering Lives: Understanding the Effects of Energy Poverty- Low-Carbon Energy Transition Nexus on Children in MENA

Energy poverty in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region profoundly affects millions, particularly children, with significant implications for their health outcomes. This paper investigates the relationship between energy poverty, low-carbon energy transition, climate change and child health across twelve MENA countries. Proposing several modifications of a Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index at the household level, and matching high-resolution temperature data to districts where households live, we analyze child health outcomes – namely stunting, wasting, infant mortality, and neonatal mortality – across twelve countries and two points in time (around 2014 and around 2018). Our findings indicate that higher energy poverty is associated significantly with increased stunting in Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. Female children exhibit lower probabilities of becoming stunted in most countries, although this result requires cautious interpretation due to potential region-specific heterogeneities in anthropometric standards. Wealthier households generally show lower stunting rates, except in Jordan and Mauritania. The results for wasting rates are similar quantitatively but weaker in significance. For infant and neonatal mortality, energy poverty shows a positive significant effect in Tunisia and Turkey, while extreme temperatures have limited but notable impacts in select countries, including a positive association in Comoros. Over time, children’s health has become more strongly related to variations in the sources of energy and to extreme climate events. These initial results underscore the necessity 1) for carefully tracking of children’s outcomes as well as of the indoor and outdoor environmental conditions they face, and 2) for targeted policies addressing energy poverty and climate resilience with regard to improving child health outcomes in the MENA region as well as across the global south broadly.