Global Clean Air

EDF partners with Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change on strategy to update air quality standards

By Sergio Sanchez / Published: March 25, 2024

EDF’s Global Clean Air team examines local air quality management data with local government partners in Brazil. Photo by Sergio Sanchez.

What’s new: EDF’s Global Clean Air (GCA) team met earlier this month with a working group within Brazil’s national government charged with updating the country’s air quality standards. EDF is providing technical support to the group, led by Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), to overhaul the country’s air quality management strategy, aiming to establish stricter standards. The purpose of the new strategy is to align Brazil’s air quality standards with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines by 2024, following a recent Supreme Court mandate.

The partnership grew out of EDF’s regional initiative with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The purpose of that initiative is to support and connect senior leaders as they pursue innovative clean air actions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Why it matters: The largest and most populous country in the LAC region, Brazil witnesses 60,000 premature deaths each year due to air pollution. Further, the country loses 2-3% of its annual GDP in health and livelihood related costs. By improving its air quality management, Brazil will not only have an opportunity to significantly improve the health of its nearly 220 million inhabitants and boost its economy, but to also set an example for the rest of the region and the world while driving progress on its climate goals.

The details: Key components of Brazil’s new air quality management strategy on which EDF is providing support include:

Setting up-to-date air quality standards, climate pollution reduction targets and an implementation roadmap
Supporting advanced air quality monitoring systems and guides for effective implementation
Initiatives to center and public health as a key focus of air quality management
An emphasis on best practices, tools and community-led solutions

The strategy will also introduce cutting edge technologies and robust tools for ensuring compliance, with a focus on cross-sector partnerships and policy innovation. It further proposes innovative financing mechanisms that would enable cities and states to independently mobilize additional funds for enhanced source identification and cross-sector efforts.

What’s next: Once the new air quality standards and monitoring system are set up, EDF aims to continue providing support as Brazil moves toward implementation, working to unlock major investments in solutions that cut emissions, such as transport electrification, clean energies and sustainable agricultural practices.

EDF’s LAC-focused Global Clean Air team includes Senior Policy Director, Sergio Sanchez, Senior Economics and Policy Analyst, Abhinand Krishnashankar and consultant Armando Retama. For more on EDF’s partnership on air quality management with Brazil, check out this blog from October, 2023.

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Underfunding the fight against air pollution is a crisis we must tackle at UNEA-6 and beyond

By Sergio Sanchez / Published: February 6, 2024

Addressing the enormous funding disparity for clean air solutions is essential to achieving global health, climate and sustainable development goals.

Air pollution affects almost everyone and carries severe consequences for public health, the environment and our climate, yet efforts to combat it are severely underfunded, especially in Latin America and the Global South. Less than 1% of development funding goes to air quality programming each year.

When leaders meet at the Sixth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) at the end of February in Nairobi, we have the opportunity to demonstrate how investing in air quality programs is a no-brainer that will deliver huge economic, health and environmental dividends.

Ignoring air pollution is expensive: A staggering 7 million die prematurely each year due to air pollution. But this astonishing statistic barely scratches the surface of the problem. The morbidities from air pollution, including chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular conditions and mental health deterioration are also costly. According to the World Bank, the economic toll of health impacts from air pollution totals $8.1 trillion annually, equivalent to 6.1% of the global GDP.

A disproportionate burden on the Global South: Regions across the Global South face a disproportionate share of the air pollution crisis, further aggravated by severe underfunding. For example, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region received only 1% of all air quality funding spent worldwide between 2017-2021, according to a Clean Air Fund analysis. These areas, grappling with booming populations and escalating transport and industrial activities, confront unique challenges in combatting air pollution and are hindered by limited resources.

The link between air pollution and climate change: The connection between air pollution and climate change is intricate. Air pollution results from many of the same activities that are best known for emitting greenhouse gasses, such as fossil fuel-powered transportation, agricultural production and waste management. Cutting these emissions not only slows global warming but also improves immediate health outcomes by alleviating air pollution, offering enormous returns on investment for both human wellbeing and the climate.

Graphic source: The State of Global Air Quality Funding 2023, The Clean Air Fund

The societal and economic benefits: Addressing air pollution globally—especially in the Global South—can revolutionize societal well-being and spur economic growth. Every $1 spent on reducing air pollution returns about $30 in economic benefits, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cleaner air leads to healthier communities, reduced healthcare costs, increased productivity and enhanced quality of life. It’s also a critical step toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

How key stakeholders can help: Every major sector will have a role to play if we are to tackle air pollution and achieve health, climate and sustainability objectives. Here is how.

Governments can help set a clean air agenda by prioritizing integrated clean air initiatives within national and subnational policies. This involves enforcing stringent emissions regulations, investing in sustainable infrastructure and allocating resources. Governments should also seek partnerships with the private sector to leverage additional resources and expertise. Aligning funding with regional priorities and international frameworks is also crucial for effective implementation.
Funders should lead the way in amending the funding imbalance by establishing dedicated financing mechanisms for new clean air projects and increasing access to climate and development funds. They can also help improve coordination between public and private sources to maximize impact per dollar and foster cross-sector collaboration.
Non-profit organizations are pivotal for raising awareness of the air pollution crisis and conveying the enormous economic, health and climate returns to clean air funding. Through strategic engagement with governments, funders, impacted communities and the private sector, the global civil society community can also strengthen the case for more equitable deployment of clean air funding across regions.
The private sector is vital for combating air pollution by striving to reduce emissions and investing in clean technologies. The World Economic Forum’s recent collaboration with the Clean Air Fund offers a sound example of how a joint endeavor with governments and civil society can help achieve universal clean air. Initiatives like this can empower businesses to contribute resources and innovation, promoting sustainable supply chains and assisting companies to meet emission reduction targets.

New opportunities: The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Clean Air Flagship announced at COP28 and the Draft Resolution on Air Pollution expected at UNEA-6 later this month represent big steps in the global collaboration against air pollution. While helping coordinate collective action, these initiatives must be accompanied by an unrelenting call for increased funding. The overwhelming economic, public health and environmental returns on such an investment should feature heavily in that call.

As we gear up for UNEA-6, recognizing the intertwined nature of air pollution, public health and climate change is crucial. Expanding funding and concerted action is not just an environmental or health necessity; it’s a moral imperative for the well-being of current and future generations. Now is the time for urgent, coordinated action to protect our planet and ensure clean air for all.

Sergio Sánchez is the Senior Policy Director of Global Clean Air for EDF Health, working globally to implement air pollution abatement policies and climate change mitigation strategies.

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New interactive data story highlights air pollution and health impacts in the South Bronx

By Mindi DePaola / Published: December 20, 2023

South Bronx Unite’s new interactive data story clearly maps the concentration of warehouses and other truck-attracting facilities in the South Bronx and throughout New York City. It also maps some of the health impacts associated with the air pollution emitted by the facilities and large diesel trucks that often come with them.

What’s new: EDF partner, South Bronx Unite, has just launched an interactive data visualization that’s mapping what residents of the South Bronx have long experienced—that air pollution from industrial facilities is taking a disproportionate toll on the health of residents in their community and across New York City. For the last year, a multi-disciplinary team at EDF has been collaborating with South Bronx Unite to improve local air quality monitoring and create engaging tools that tell the stories found in monitoring data.

Why it matters: Every city relies on large industrial facilities, and New York City is no exception. Think waste transfer stations, power plants, printing facilities and warehouses that support in-time delivery services. Many of these facilities are major air polluters in the neighborhoods where they are placed. Beyond the facilities themselves, the heavy-duty vehicles that they attract, such as large delivery trucks, are among the leading polluters on the road.

What we know: For decades, South Bronx residents have faced disproportionately high air pollution and asthma rates. Leveraging recent EDF research that describes air pollution’s burden of childhood asthma, the new webpage now backs up residents’ lived experiences with even more quantitative information, presented as a narrated interactive visualization that helps tell the story.

How the work has been used: Presenting this additional data in an easy-to-understand format will help advance tangible policy change that can improve health outcomes in the South Bronx and beyond. South Bronx Unite leaders recently participated in NYC Climate Week events where they used this tool to tell the story of their air quality monitoring efforts and what they will mean for public health.

Moving forward: South Bronx Unite will continue to use the air quality and health insights from this new tool to advance their advocacy goals. They have begun working closely with the EDF New York State team to build consensus with local coalitions.

Real policy actions are already taking shape in New York that could help alleviate the health impacts of warehouses and other polluting facilities in the South Bronx and across the state. In November 2023, state lawmakers introduced the Clean Deliveries Act, which would require the state to review the negative impacts of so-called “mega-warehouses” and establish emissions reduction plans.

South Bronx Unite brings together neighborhood residents, community organizations, academic institutions and allies to improve and protect the social, environmental and economic future of the South Bronx. Learn more about their work and how you can support it at southbronxunite.org.

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EDF China unveils locally-tailored Air Tracker in Jinan

By EDF Web Team / Published: December 11, 2023

EDF China holds meeting to launch localized Air Tracker tool in Jinan in November, 2023. Photo courtesy of EDF China.

What’s new: EDF China recently unveiled its localized Air Tracker tool at a meeting with government officials and policy and academic experts in Jinan. The tool will help these and other policymakers to track and mitigate air pollution in support of China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

What is Air Tracker?: Air Tracker is an innovative air quality monitoring tool developed by EDF, the University of Utah and the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University that uses real-time, trusted scientific models to help users see where air pollution is coming from. The tool is currently operational in five U.S. cities, with plans to expand globally.

To adapt Air Tracker’s technology for use in China, EDF China collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning and Tsinghua University on joint research projects in Jinan, a city with more than 9 million residents. Jinan was an ideal location to deploy the technology in part because it has an urgent need to further reduce air pollution levels. Concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5), sometimes called soot, stood at 40 μg/m3 in Jinan in 2022. These exceed China’s national standards (35 μg/m3), which are 7 times weaker than the World Health Organization’s recommended limits (5 μg/m3).

What we know: Tsinghua University developed a monitoring approach that utilizes meteorological, emission and observational data from monitoring stations, which complements Air Tracker. By incorporating both approaches, the new, localized Air Tracker tool will pinpoint pollution sources and inform targeted control

Why it matters: This new tool allows users to quantify the contributions of different emission sources through near-real-time data collection. This will allow government officials to develop targeted control measures to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions.

Both China and the United States have committed to jointly addressing the climate crisis. The newly localized Air Tracker tool is an example of the ways the two countries plan to promote policies and technologies that control greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Next steps: EDF China and our partners—including the Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning and Jinan Environmental Research Academy—will test the localized Air Tracker this winter in Jinan. The team also will seek input from key government partners who were present at the launch, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China (MEE) and the Jinan Municipal Ecology and Economic Bureau.

The lessons learned from this pilot phase will provide valuable insights to other cities in the Global South who may also benefit from Air Tracker or similar technologies. The learnings will likely also inform future expansions of the tool to other cities in China and around the world.

Learn more about EDF’s Air Tracker tool at globalcleanair.org/AirTracker.

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Efforts to fight air pollution are severely underfunded. Leaders in Latin America and across the Global South are calling for change at COP28 and beyond

By Derek Schwabe / Published: November 30, 2023

The Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean convenes in Panama City, Panama in October 2023. The Forum plays a crucial role in shaping and building consensus around environmental policies.

What’s new: The ministers of environment representing 33 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region recently issued a joint declaration calling out the yawning gap between the funds needed to address the global air pollution crisis and the funds currently committed. The declaration is noteworthy because it has set a tone for influential global dialogues happening this week at COP28 and in February at the 6^th session of the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6).

Why it matters: 99% of the world’s population now breathes unhealthy air. As a result, more than 8 million people die prematurely each year due to fossil fuel-driven air pollution, making it the 4^th leading cause of death worldwide. Despite the staggering human costs, currently only 1% of development funding goes to programs aimed at improving air quality each year.

The LAC region is one of the most underfunded when it comes to air quality. Expanding investments in air quality would help the region reach its climate goals and improve health outcomes. It could also set the stage for scaling investments in air quality in underfunded regions across the Global South.

The details: In the declaration, ministers stressed the need for regional and global coordination. They also called upon the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)—which is responsible for leading implementation—to provide technical support to countries as they enact key policies, like air quality standards and management plans. Specific actions requested of UNEP include:

Leading the implementation of the Regional Action Plan on Air Quality and mobilizing the resources needed to support it;
Helping countries strengthen legal frameworks to prevent and reduce air pollution by adopting air quality standards and developing plans for crucial sectors;
Encouraging countries to act boldly to abate emissions of short-lived climate pollutants;
Promoting best practices, infrastructure and sustainable transport initiatives that can ensure a just transition in hot spots, especially large cities.

What they’re saying: Senior Policy Director of Global Clean Air, Sergio Sanchez, spoke of the declaration: “This declaration marks a bold step toward realizing the vision of a thriving LAC region. When we act collectively to cut air pollution, we act to meet the climate crisis, strengthen our economy and dramatically improve health. We will continue to support the regional and global partnerships needed to mobilize this action at COP 28, UNEA-6 and beyond.”

What EDF is doing: In September 2022, EDF and UNEP launched a joint initiative to help LAC countries develop funding-ready clean air projects. Since then, EDF has continued to grow that effort by:

Helping UNEP implement the Regional Action Plan to coordinate strategic investments.
Convening two major international workshops to reactivate the region’s Intergovernmental Network on Air Pollution. These workshops have fostered new partnerships and high-impact projects backed by participant governments and global partners, such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the OECD.
Hosting a side event at the 2023 LAC Climate Week, focused on mobilizing greater financing for air quality in the region. The event debuted a new video that lays out how such actions could transform population health and power economic growth.
Serving on the Climate and Clean Air Coalition task force, which is dedicated to designing the Clean Air Flagship, set to launch at COP28. The purpose of the Flagship is to enhance funding and cooperation efforts globally.

What’s next: As leaders from all sectors gather at COP28, LAC leaders have an opportunity to take their call to the global stage. It’s a chance to join with governments from across world—especially other neglected regions—to demand that the air pollution crisis receives the funding it requires.

Leaders will have a second opportunity at UNEA-6 to secure greater investments in air quality by having the global assembly ratify regional calls for broader support. If ratified, UNEP would be tasked with implementing the declaration of the global assembly. Ratification would give UNEP some additional budget—and a stronger mandate to take to donor governments and agencies.

Learn more about our clean air partnership with UNEP and LAC countries at globalcleanair.org/LAC.

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Collaborating on clean air in Latin America and around the world

By Sergio Sanchez / Published: February 10, 2023

Many Latin American and Caribbean countries are implementing clean air solutions, but much more must be done to protect public health and slow climate change. An intensive two-day clean air workshop in Bogotá, Colombia made one thing clear: cooperation and collaboration are critical to scaling clean air solutions in Latin America, the Caribbean and the world.

Professionals from 15 countries attended the workshop, co-hosted by Environmental Defense Fund and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Participants shared best practices for clean air strategies aimed at improving public health and advancing climate action goals.

Key workshop themes:

Sensors, satellites and other advances in air quality technology are improving our ability to understand where pollution is coming from and who is being most harmed by it, which is critical for developing targeted clean air solutions.
Strengthening air quality management is key to supporting LAC climate, health, biodiversity and sustainable development goals.
Government leadership—supported by commitments from industry, academia, and civil society—is necessary for delivering cleaner, healthy air for the LAC region.
In order to secure the funding and public support needed to prioritize clean air solutions, more must be done to make the benefits of reducing air pollution more explicit.

Why it matters: Air pollution is the biggest environmental health threat in Latin America and the Caribbean. The UN has declared access to clean air a human right, but more than 500 million people in the LAC region breathe air that exceeds the World Health Organization’s guidelines for pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, fine particle pollution and ground-level ozone.

What’s next: A paper to be published in February highlights priorities for integrated air quality management in 33 LAC countries.

EDF and UNEP are collaborating to develop clean air solutions in LAC. In April, EDF, UNEP and the Climate & Clean Air Coalition will co-host a workshop in Bogotá on actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants that harm people’s health and warm our planet. Later this year, EDF will select 10 projects to provide with technical assistance and will facilitate a resource mobilization effort to support their implementation. As the selected projects are developed and implemented, ongoing collaborative activities will be held across the region.

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Four ways air quality technology can improve public health in Latin America and around the world

By Maia Draper / Published: December 22, 2022

As countries around the world work to develop strategies to improve air quality and achieve climate goals, innovations in monitoring technology and data analysis are opening up new avenues to reduce air pollution and protect our health.

In Latin America, policymakers and other key stakeholders from 15 countries attended a recent workshop co-hosted by Environmental Defense Fund and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Latin America and Caribbean office and discussed how a regional partnership approach to improve air quality, protect global health and advance climate goals can harness the power of new technologies and analytics to leapfrog existing barriers to advancing clean air. By integrating insights from new data-driven tools, policymakers in Latin America and around the world can more effectively use limited resources to shape policies that provide the greatest air quality and health benefits.

Here are four ways technology and data innovation can advance clean air solutions:

Locate pollution sources

Identifying air pollution sources—where it’s coming from, who’s responsible—is a critical component of air quality management. But emissions inventories and traditional models have limited ability to help us pinpoint the likely sources of local pollution when source information is lacking.

One resource to address this uncertainty is Air Tracker, an online tool developed by EDF and partners that uses real-time meteorological models and available air quality data to help users locate likely sources of local pollution.

Air Tracker has the potential to work even in locations without comprehensive air pollution data, although additional data sources—from low-cost sensors, weather data and more—improve the tool’s accuracy and ability to better pinpoint pollution hotspots.

Evaluate health impacts

Satellite data is another game-changing technology that enables us to better understand the magnitude and distribution of air pollution’s health impacts at an unprecedented scale. A recent study by researchers at George Washington University used satellite data and hyperlocal modeling to estimate that nearly 2 million new pediatric asthma cases can be attributed to air pollution in 13,000 cities around the world.

EDF used this analysis to develop maps that visualize the proportion of pediatric asthma cases attributable to air pollution in major U.S. cities.

This study and others like it open up new opportunities to find previously invisible hotspots of air pollution—and to develop policies to protect the health of people who are first and worst affected by air pollution.

Improve compliance with air quality rules

Actionable data on air quality is critical for enforcement of health-protective air quality regulations. In Houston, Texas, more than 600 industrial facilities along the Houston Ship Channel sit in close proximity to residential neighborhoods. While these facilities are subject to federal and state regulations, permit violations and industrial accidents are common, and enforcement from state regulators has historically been lax.

New data insights and technologies can support local governments in proactively identifying the most high-risk facilities and target monitoring and enforcement efforts there.

EDF worked with Houston-area officials to develop a Facility Risk Ranking tool, which compiles multiple data sources to identify and rank the most “high-risk” facilities. Local staff used this tool to prioritize locations for mobile monitoring with a specialized air toxics instrument around those facilities, identifying hotspots of pollutants and sending investigators to inspect likely sources.

Evaluate policy strategies

Finally, new approaches to air quality monitoring and data analysis open exciting possibilities for improving how we evaluate the effectiveness of policy strategies – both before and after implementation.

One approach to evaluate policies is to use “hyperlocal” or neighborhood-level monitoring to track changes in air quality. In the Breathe London Pilot Project, EDF partnered with the Greater London Authority to deploy a network of low-cost monitors alongside mobile monitoring. We used this data to evaluate air quality benefits from London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which established fees for high-polluting vehicles to drive in central London, and developed a guide of best practices for other regions looking to integrate this kind of data analysis into policy evaluations.

Combining tools to strengthen compliance with clean air laws

All of these innovative approaches help us to better understand air quality challenges and develop effective policies to address them. By leveraging new sources of air quality data alongside traditional regulatory approaches, we can enhance policy and enforcement efforts with hard evidence and allocate resources for the highest impact solutions.

A more sophisticated understanding of air can also help us to document improvements to air quality that are associated with climate policies – a priority for many countries as they work toward fulfilling international climate commitments. 

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EDF joins global organizations calling on UNFCCC to strengthen action on short-lived climate pollutants to achieve climate goals

By Sergio Sanchez / Published: November 4, 2022

This blog is co-authored by Sergio Sanchez, Global Clean Air Policy Director and Julia Gohlke, Lead Senior Scientist, Climate & Health

Environmental Defense Fund supports the World Health Organization (WHO), The World Bank Group, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, which have appealed to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Parties to expand the scope of pollutants under consideration and the methodology for Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) assessment, and to strengthen the focus on sector approaches to climate action.”

WHO issued an October 31, 2022 policy brief about SLCPs (black carbon, methane,. tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons), along with a group of other major international development organizations. The policy brief urges UNFCCC delegates gathering at COP 27 (November 6-18) to strengthen ambition, improve data reporting and encourage integrated health assessments of air pollution in each country’s nationally determined contribution (NDC). Furthermore, it calls for the full incorporation of SLCPs as an explicit agenda item under the UNFCCC.

Credit: Climate & Clean Air Coalition

Fast action to reduce SLCPs will result in quick benefits for climate change and for human health. SLCPs have historically not been comprehensively included in country emissions inventories and NDC mitigation pledges. Some countries, such as Mexico, have included SLCPs in their NDC, pledging to reduce black carbon by 51% by 2030. Through recognition of the immediate health gains realized with SLCP reductions, climate action ambitions can be strengthened at COP27.

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Take Back Health In Your City: WHO’s Dr. Maria Neira’s argument for reducing emissions

By Sergio Sanchez / Published: October 25, 2021

When the World Health Organization (WHO) released its new Global Air Quality guidelines earlier this month for the first time since 2005, it cited an overwhelming body of evidence showing how air pollution severely impacts health at even lower concentrations than previously understood. And while concentrations still largely exceed levels published by the WHO in 2005 for several pollutants in many areas around the world, the organization has now set more aggressive targets along with a phased approach in the hopes it can encourage countries to redouble their efforts to abate air pollution for protecting public health.

The price of inaction is clear: The burden of disease from both ambient and household air pollution exposure continues to grow. Children’s health is largely impaired by reduced long growth and function, respiratory infections and aggravated asthma resulting from breathing poor air quality. In adults, major causes of premature death attributable to air pollution are heart disease and stroke, and there is emerging evidence of diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions, among other effects. Every year, exposure to air pollution causes some 7 million premature deaths and results in the loss of millions more healthy years of life.

In a recent conversation, Dr. Maria Neira, the WHO’s Director of Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants, suggested that policymakers examine what they will gain from implementing stricter air quality standards, in addition to the consequences of inaction.

Dr. Maria Neira, World Health Organization

Health benefits of taking action

Dr. Neira argues that we should reframe our approach to focus on the multiple benefits of reducing pollution. “If the world stops burning fossil fuels, we will see an incredible benefit to public health,” Dr. Neira said. Not only could we prevent a significant percentage of chronic diseases, she says, “You could have more walking in the city. You could have more physical activity. You could take back your city.”

Dr. Neira, who wanted to be a physician since she was a child growing up in Spain, began her career as an endocrinologist, providing her a fist-hand look at the body’s feedback to endocrine disruptors like air pollution emissions. She later served as the medical director for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in refugee camps in El Salvador and Honduras. That experience prompted her to work in public health. “I couldn’t accept the fact that I was treating patients and then sending them back into conditions that were causing diseases,” she says. “I realized I could make a bigger impact if I worked on sanitation problems or children breathing poor air.”

Slowing climate change, benefitting public health

Now, charged with the leading of the WHO prevention arm, Dr. Neira examines the multitude of factors that can influence health, including diet and the environment. She hopes that in addition to adopting stricter air quality standards, countries will begin to look more closely at the health benefits associated with combating climate change. She argues that the cost savings in health—from the reduction in chronic diseases to increased productivity—would outweigh the investments needed to end our dependence on fossil fuels. Showing that kind of positive outcome in a similar way that current models illustrate economic benefits, would be “the indicator we would dream about.”

While climate change and air pollution impact vulnerable populations more acutely, Dr. Neira notes that dirty air and its impacts are harmful across all sectors of society. “In Europe we have 400,000 deaths every year due to air pollution.” When you add the cost of related hospital visits and the loss of work days, the impacts represent an overall cost to society, she says. Cities known for higher levels of air pollution may even find themselves less attractive to businesses, if they cannot lure top talent to live with their families, she says, citing Shanghai as a prime example.

Following positive examples

Social distancing requirements for COVID-19 brought many cities like Bogota, Columbia to expand bicycling infrastructure.

Countries like Canada and those in Scandinavia are trending in the right direction because their clean air and climate policies, Dr. Neira says. She also noted that mayors with the political will to transform their cities with low emission, sustainable interventions are seeing positive results. Bogota, Colombia, and Bilbao, Spain, are examples of industrialized cities that are now becoming “a pleasure to see.” However, “national politicians need to go farther.”

Need for additional research

While the WHO cited a wealth of research in its decision to lower emissions standards, Dr. Neira says scientists still have plenty of areas for future study. “I think most of the research now needs to go to interventions,” she says. “And whether we can prove those interventions are impactful or not.” Measuring health gains from changing traffic patterns or agricultural practices could help determine which interventions countries adopt. Researchers should examine whether interventions are cost-effective, how soon their impacts can be measured and how beneficial they are to both the environment and human health. “We have to prioritize those that have the biggest public health impact in the shortest possible period of time,” she concluded.

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Capturing the health benefits of climate policy is critical

By jgohlke / Published: October 4, 2021

Over the past 30 years, numerous scientific reports have highlighted the health impacts of climate change, starting with the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report in 1990. The report included a short summary on heat stress, vector and water borne diseases and air pollution health effects like asthma and heart attacks.

Yet health impacts are not fully accounted for in cost of carbon estimates – presenting a missed opportunity. Public health researchers and economists should continue to work together to more fully capture the health value of policies that cut climate pollution.

Climate and health

The most recent National Climate Assessment, published in 2018, provides an extensive review of climate change effects on human health in U.S. regions. Public health impacts include:

changes in mortality and hospitalizations due to extreme weather events including heat waves, floods, and droughts.
changes in vector-, food-, and waterborne infectious diseases.
changes in chemical exposures via air, food and water.
stresses to mental health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) quantifies global health impacts of climate change, utilizing the burden of disease methodology to estimate mortality and disability-adjusted life years. Based on heat-related mortality, diarrheal disease, malnutrition and malaria, the most recent WHO assessment projected 250,000 additional deaths per year in 2030 – despite only quantifying a subset of health impacts from climate change.

The Lancet has also commissioned several series of articles and reports detailing the human health implications of climate change. After the Paris Agreement, the outlet initiated the Lancet Countdown, tracking the status of health effects from climate change through reporting on numerous indicators across impacts, exposures and vulnerabilities, as well as adaptation and mitigation actions. For example, the most recent Lancet report estimated a 53.7% increase in heat-related mortality over the last 20 years and an estimated 15% increase in climate suitability for transmission of dengue.

Health benefits largely absent

Benefit-cost analysis – typically managed by economists – is a cornerstone of U.S. regulatory analysis. The U.S. Government is required to use a monetized estimate of the net impacts of global climate change, referred to as the social cost of carbon (SCC), in regulatory rulemakings of greenhouse gas emissions. The current models used to estimate the SCC incorporate impacts to agriculture productivity, energy use, property damage and, within the health sector, an estimation of changes in cold and heat-related mortality.

Yet, while the research community continues to provide more detailed characterizations of climate change’s health effects, health researchers have been less involved in applying these findings to estimate the SCC. As a result, health is still not fully represented in the SCC.

Quantification of health benefits, like lives saved and hospitalizations avoided, can provide critical justification for and evidence of success of environmental policies. For example, the regulatory impact analysis of the Clean Power Plan included an estimation of health and other benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions using the SCC estimate, as well as expected health co-benefits via reduced air pollution.

Improving health benefits estimates

A 2017 National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine report recommended two critical research needs for advancing the science behind the SCC estimate:

Updating health damage modules to incorporate recent health literature.
Improving delineation of the different effects of climate change across regions of the world – e.g., trying to determine the different health impacts expected in different areas.

Since the release of this report, several groups have been working to address these recommendations. For example, the Climate Impact Lab has developed an improved temperature-related mortality estimate that incorporates adaptation and delineates distributional effects across areas of the globe.

A recent analysis utilized WHO, Climate Impact Lab, and Lancet Countdown temperature-mortality functions to produce estimated mortality costs associated with climate change – suggesting a seven-fold increase in estimated monetary damages from previous estimates. In other words, adding in more specific health damage estimates increased the estimated cost of carbon pollution by seven times—from $37 to $258 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted.

Although climate change is a global phenomenon, the impacts are unequal and disproportionately burden underserved, low-income and marginalized communities. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that socially vulnerable populations are likely to experience the most severe harms from climate change. Evaluating distributional health effects of climate change at a finer geographical scale could help policymakers address inequities.

It’s critical for policymakers to have accurate information to weigh the benefits and costs of cutting carbon. With health researchers involved, benefit-cost analyses can more accurately capture the threat that climate change poses to people’s health – and the benefits that come with acting on climate.

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