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Climate change mitigation will more than pay for itself by reducing air pollution and improving human health

Pollution of the atmosphere by human beings causes global warming and damages human health.

New research shows that the mitigating climate change will more than pay for itself through improvements in human health.

The journal article summarized below, “Mitigation and health: Climate policy not so costly”, was released yesterday by Nature Climate Change, and is available only to those with paid access.

However, an earlier Harvard paper on the same subject, Co-benefits of Carbon Standards, and presentation Co-Benefits of Carbon Standards Study, Part 1 are freely available.  Key findings (more limited than the findings released yesterday) are below.

 Source: “Co-Benefits of Carbon Standards Study, Part 1”

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Mitigation and health: Climate policy not so costly

Nature Climate Change

 

4,

 

861–862

 

 

doi:10.1038/nclimate2391
Published online

 

Climate change mitigation can benefit human health by reducing air pollution. Research now shows that the economic value of health improvements can substantially outweigh mitigation costs, and that more flexible policies could have higher benefits.

References

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  2. Thompson, T. M. et al. Nature Clim. Change 4, 917–923 (2014).
  3. Lim, S. S. et al. The Lancet 380, 2224–2260 (2012).

  4. Fann, N. et al. Risk Anal. 32, 81–95 (2012).

  5. IPCC Summary for Policymakers in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (eds Field, C. B. et al.) 1–32 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).
  6. Siler-Evans, K. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 11768–11773 (2013).

  7. Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Proposed Carbon Pollution Guidelines for Existing Power Plants and Emission Standards for Modified and Reconstructed Power Plants(US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards Health and Environmental Impacts Division Air Economics Group, 2014).
  8. Gilmore, E. A. et al. J. Power Sources 195, 2405–2413 (2010).

  9. Anenberg, S. C. et al. Environ. Health Perspect. 120, 831–839 (2012).

  10. Shindell, D. et al. Science 335, 183–189 (2012).

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Jonathan Buonocore is in the Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard School of Public Health, Landmark Center 4th Floor West, 401 Park Drive, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

Corresponding author

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