It’s a classic policy dispute: How much should the current generation invest in reducing carbon emissions for the benefit of future generations?
It’s a classic policy dispute: How much should the current generation invest in reducing carbon emissions for the benefit of future generations?
A study published in Nature Communications helps answer this question by quantifying whether reducing carbon emissions — which will have global benefits in the future — also improves air quality now. Preventing many of the human health burdens that result from air pollution would be a powerful positive incentive to act sooner than later.
The study, which debuts a new climate policy model developed by Princeton University researchers and others, reports it is economically sound to quickly and dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions given the immediate and significant human health benefits. The findings also support the climate targets prescribed by the Paris Climate Agreement in cost-benefit terms.
The model combines the cost of reducing emissions with the potential health ‘co-benefits’ or synergies of climate policy; these co-benefits have traditionally been excluded in the cost-benefit models that estimate how much the world should pay to reduce carbon emissions. When put together, the researchers find immediate net benefits globally from climate policy investments.
Read more at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Image: A study debuting a new climate policy model developed by Princeton University researchers and others reports it is economically sound to quickly and dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions given the immediate and significant human health benefits. The findings also support the climate targets prescribed by the Paris Climate Agreement in cost-benefit terms. (Credit: Egan Jimenez, Princeton University)
