• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy March 28, 2023
Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead March 26, 2023
B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns March 26, 2023
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

Child Health Gains Emerge as ‘Side Benefit’ from Northeastern U.S. Climate Program

August 6, 2020
Reading time: 2 minutes

/PickPik

/PickPik

1
SHARES
 

Fifteen years after the launch of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a climate initiative in 10 northeastern U.S. states, researchers have discovered some critical side benefits to reducing CO2 emissions: fewer preterm births, healthier babies, fewer cases of asthma, and possibly fewer cases of autism.

While RGGI’s mandate is to cut emissions, researchers with the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that the program has also reduced fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and, in turn, helped the region avoid “an estimated 537 cases of child asthma, 112 preterm births, 98 cases of autism spectrum disorder, and 56 cases of low birthweight from 2009 to 2014,” The Daily Climate reports.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

The study, which was just published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, added that avoiding such impacts to children’s health translated into US$191 million to $350 million in economic savings.

“The estimates of health benefits and cost savings are likely conservative,” adds Daily Climate: While atmospheric PM2.5 is the major form of particle pollution emanating from power plants, ozone and nitrogen dioxide are also emitted and can also damage health. Nor did the study factor in the health benefits that accrue from reducing greenhouse gases.

The economic calculations “are definitely underestimates, as they do not include the long-term lifetime costs of these disorders or impairments,” added lead author Frederica Perera, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School and director of translational research at Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. “Preterm births, for example, raise the risk for respiratory illness in adulthood, and for cognitive effects like decreased IQ.” 

RGGI was launched in 2005 as the first of its kind in the United States. Each state that signs on is “expected to reduce their annual carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector by 45% below 2005 levels by 2020, and by an additional 30% by 2030,” writes Daily Climate. Signatories include Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. New Jersey left in 2012 but rejoined this year, and Virginia has just signed up.

The emissions objectives of the initiative have been more than met so far, with states reporting emissions at more than 50% below 2005 levels in 2017.

Digging into the details of the study, Daily Climate explains that the research deployed an Environmental Protection Agency tool that “estimates air pollution-related illnesses and deaths and assigns an economic value” to the losses. There are weaknesses—or at least gaps—in the study, the Daily Climate notes, including the fact that “the link between PM2.5 and autism, while likely given past research, hasn’t been proven.”

Perera expressed regret at the lack of granular, neighbourhood detail in the data, which led to an inability to report the health benefits of cleaner air by race or income level. “We know these pollutants are major contributors to inequality worldwide; they disproportionately affect places where poverty and environmental injustice compound the effect,” she observed.

But she still described the new study as “a good news story,” and expressed hope that its results might encourage environmental policy-makers “to consider the health benefits to children and how to maximize those.”



in Carbon Levels & Measurement, Climate & Society, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Demographics, Ending Emissions, Health & Safety, Jurisdictions, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

kelly8843496 / Pixabay
Finance & Investment

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
614
TruckPR/flickr
Hydrogen

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
370
icondigital/pixabay
Supply Chains & Consumption

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
182

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

kelly8843496 / Pixabay

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
614
Faye Cornish/Unsplash

Abundance, Not Austerity: Reframe the Climate Narrative, Solnit Urges

March 26, 2023
146
TruckPR/flickr

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
370
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns

March 28, 2023
59
icondigital/pixabay

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
182
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
755

Recent Posts

UNICEF Ethiopia/flickr

Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead

March 29, 2023
36
Prime Minister's Office/flickr

Biden’s Ottawa Visit Highlights EVs, Clean Grid, Critical Minerals

March 28, 2023
86
EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
63
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
339
IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
1k
U.S. National Park Service/rawpixel

Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns

March 20, 2023
97
Next Post
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Dakota Access Pipeline Dodges Immediate Shutdown, Still Faces Environmental Review

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}