Tackling air pollution and climate change together could deliver multiple benefits, saving £24 billion pounds, argues a report published by Defra last week. Air Pollution: Action in a Changing Climate shows that climate change and air pollutants often share the same sources, although the effects are seen on different geographical scales.
Substantial and cost-effective benefits
Taking action to reduce the effects of climate change can deliver benefits to both air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Both arise from broadly the same sources and will therefore benefit from many of the same measures. A closer integration of air quality and climate change policies will achieve substantial and cost-effective additional benefits, particularly in public health.
Proposed initiatives – such as the promotion of non-combustion renewable sources of electricity, promoting the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and reducing agricultural demands for nitrogen – can benefit both climate change and air pollution.
The calculations of savings are based on the cost of air pollution in the UK, currently estimated at £15 billion a year, and the cost savings of combined measures to tackle climate change and air pollution. Air pollution has adverse health impacts on and can lead to premature deaths from heart and lung disease and can exacerbate asthma. Poor air quality can also effect quality of life and can damage sensitive and valued habitats and biodiversity.
Further improvement on air pollution
Although air quality has improved beyond all recognition, it still significantly reduces average life expectancy, causes many extra admissions to hospitals, and damages the natural environment. Surveys repeatedly show that people care strongly about air pollution, predominantly in urban and industrial areas but also in other surroundings.
Joining up
Although many of the measures outlined in the UK Climate Change Act will lead to improved air quality, it is important that the initiatives to mitigate climate change don’t worsen air quality in some areas. There are many synergies in the areas of transport and energy generation but there can be some problems for air quality with certain low carbon measures, such as using biomass boilers and combined heat and power in urban centres or the use of some biofuels in transport. Action will be needed at all levels to ensure climate change and air quality policies are integrated to maximise benefits and minimise negative impacts. Defra plans to include recommendations from the report in the next air quality strategy.
Saving money through sustainable development
Sustainable development has often been regarded as an add-on expense, to mitigate necessary risks, but evidence such as this, shows that taking an sustainable joined up approach to tackling challenges can often lead to multiple benefits and reduce costs. Launching the report, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Bob Watson, said:
We’ve seen time and again that dealing with environmental problems in isolation is neither effective nor efficient. We need a coordinated view which confronts the complexities involved and seeks to maximise the co-benefits of actions. This document and the evidence behind it amply demonstrate the benefits which can be obtained from this type of holistic approach and sets out a clear path for air quality policy over the long term.
Further reading
- Air Pollution: Action in a Changing Climate was published by Defra on behalf of the UK Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive
The potential multiple benefits of action on climate change have recently been highlighted in:
- The Marmot report, outlining the value of tackling health inequalities and climate change together
- A special edition of the Lancet, on various potential health benefits of tackling climate change