The European Climate Law dictates that European Union (EU) countries must reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050.
In order to achieve this goal, it is imperative that EU countries' energy policies and strategies quantify both the health and climate impacts of the air pollution generated from electricity use because these burdens vary substantially by country, region, and energy source, according to a new study by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Currently, EU climate policies primarily consider only the climate effects of energy emissions from sectors such as buildings, public transportation, and industry. This approach overlooks the immediate harms that poor air quality is known to have on human health, including increased asthma, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
The new study quantifies these health effects, finding dramatic differences in this health burden from electricity use based on the source of energy that countries use. In places where coal or oil are the main energy source—including in Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece—the air quality-related health burdens can be up to 10 times greater than its climate burden. The findings were published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
"This research is another example among growing data that show how closely related energy choices are to public health," says study coauthor Dr. Jonathan Buonocore , assistant professor of environmental health at BUSPH. "In the European Union, there would be huge benefits to both health and climate if more renewable energy or energy efficiency strategies were deployed, especially in countries using large amounts of coal."
The researchers also found that the health benefits of sustainable energy strategies are markedly higher in Eastern Europe than in Western or Northern Europe.
"Saving the same amount of electricity in Estonia can deliver over 1,000 times more health benefits than in Sweden—a striking disparity that highlights the importance of targeted policies," says study lead author Dr. Gen Pei , research associate in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School. "It is important to identify these variations to formulate effective, targeted energy and climate policies in the EU, such as the region-based EU Energy Efficiency Directive and the country-level policies like Spanish Building Technical Code."
With these findings, the researchers have developed a digital tool called CoBE EU that makes it easier for decision-makers in the EU to gather insight about buildings' electricity consumption in different countries to understand the benefits of building decarbonization.
"With this open-access online tool, building owners, operators, and policymakers can quantify the climate and health co-benefits of sustainable building development in EU countries," Dr. Pei says.
For the study, the research team used novel methods to estimate greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions of energy consumption in the EU. They used the social cost of carbon to estimate the potential monetary impacts of climate change attributed to greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption, and additional methods to calculate worldwide deaths due to energy emissions in Europe.
Notably, they found that it is critical for countries to distinguish each source that is used for energy consumption to avoid missing sources, such as biofuels, that could be harmful to human health and the environment.
"Biofuels are considered carbon neutral, but have considerable emissions of air pollutants and associated health impacts," says Dr. Pei. "In countries such as Estonia and Hungary, we found that the relatively high use of biofuels may contribute to their health burdens of electricity use. Energy reports with biofuels lumped into renewables may overlook the potential health burden of air pollution from combusting biofuels."
This information is also timely as EU countries will need to collectively achieve an additional 11.7-percent reduction in energy consumption by 2030 to meet its climate goal.
"We now have the capabilities to directly integrate public health considerations into energy policy," Dr. Buonocore says. "Making these external, invisible public health and climate costs visible to energy policymakers can yield massive benefits to public health."
The study's senior author is Dr. Joseph Allen , professor of environmental health at Harvard Chan School and director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program .
**
About Boston University School of Public Health
Founded in 1976, Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top ten ranked schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations—especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable—locally and globally.
About Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is a community of innovative scientists, practitioners, educators, and students dedicated to improving health and advancing equity so all people can thrive. We research the many factors influencing health and collaborate widely to translate those insights into policies, programs, and practices that prevent disease and promote well-being for people around the world. We also educate thousands of public health leaders a year through our degree programs, postdoctoral training, fellowships, and continuing education courses. Founded in 1913 as America's first professional training program in public health, the School continues to have an extraordinary impact in fields ranging from infectious disease to environmental justice to health systems and beyond.
