New Research Quantifies Health Benefits of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Berkeley Lab)
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which result from the burning of fossil fuels, also reduces the incidence of health problems from particulate matter (PM) in these emissions.
A team of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), RAND Corp., and the University of Washington, has calculated that the economic benefit of reduced health impacts from GHG reduction strategies in the U.S. range between $6 and $14 billion annually in 2020, depending on how the reductions are accomplished. This equates to a health benefit of between $40 and $93 per metric ton of carbon dioxide reduction.
Strategies considered by the team encompassed efficiency improvements in light- and heavy-duty vehicles, buildings and coal power plants; reducing light-duty vehicle-miles traveled; and substitution of coal electricity with lower-carbon energy sources.
A wedge-based approach to estimating health co-benefits of climate change mitigation activities in the United States John M. Balbus, Jeffery B. Greenblatt, Ramya Chari, Dev Millstein, Kristie L. Ebi.
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