Losses of Russian regions from mortality due to sharp climate fluctuation

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies. 2022. Vol. 16. No. 2/3/4. P. 236–256.

Fokeev M., Ruzhanskaya L., Kislyak N.

The ecological problem is particularly acute in emerging markets due to the lack of attention to environmental protection against the background of ensuring stable high rates of economic growth. Climate change in Russia is significantly higher than the world average. The paper is an attempt to determine the economic losses of the regions of Russia from the mortality of the population of working age. The unit for data collection was Russian cities with a population of over 50,000 people. Climate change refers to air temperature fluctuations in extreme ranges (colder than –30°C, and hotter than +25°C) from 1997 to 2017. The data on mortality are collected by groups of patients most sensitive to sharp climate fluctuations: cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease, and respiratory diseases. Losses of the gross regional product from mortality of the population at working age (from 14 to 60 years) for 82 constituent entities of the Russian Federation are estimated. There are regions where there is a statistically steady increase in the number of days with extreme temperatures per year in the last 20 years of meteorological observations. Based on the analysis of an array of publications in peer-reviewed journals of the Scopus and WoS databases devoted to studies of the effects of temperature anomalies on a person’s life, the authors of this article have identified the most important directions for developing regional development strategies with regard to improving the quality of life and sustainable growth objectives.

Keywords: mortality, climate change, developed and emerging markets, weather, loss of GRP, extremely hot, extremely cold temperatures