scholarly journals One Atmosphere: Integrating Air Pollution and Climate Policy and Governance

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1570
Author(s):  
Eric Zusman ◽  
Charlotte Unger ◽  
Nathan Borgford-Parnell ◽  
Kathleen A. Mar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Stakeholder Cooperation ◽  
Support Cost

Few challenges pose a greater threat to a healthy planet and people than air pollution and climate change. Over the past three decades, research has demonstrated that integrated solutions to air pollution and climate change can yield co-benefits that support cost-effective, coherent policies. However, research on co-benefits has yet to generate policy responses consistent with this promise. This paper argues that realizing this potential requires more rigorous research on how governance affects the opportunities and incentives to align the interests of government agencies, scientists, and other stakeholders at multiple levels. The article proposes a “One Atmosphere approach” consisting of three building blocks to strengthen that alignment: (1) continually incorporating and strategically timing the introduction of integrated visions; (2) reforming governance arrangements to encourage interagency collaboration and multi-stakeholder cooperation; and (3) supporting integrated visions and institutional cooperation with standardized metrics and assessment methods. This article is also the introduction to the Special Issue ‘One Atmosphere: Integrating Air Pollution and Climate Policy and Governance’, aimed at fostering the multidisciplinary dialogue needed for more integrated air pollution and climate change policies.

scholarly journals Using the Market to Address Climate Change: Insights from Theory & Experience

Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Aldy ◽  
Robert N. Stavins
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Shadow Price ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Carbon Taxes

Emissions of greenhouse gases linked with global climate change are affected by diverse aspects of economic activity, including individual consumption, business investment, and government spending. An effective climate policy will have to modify the decision calculus for these activities in the direction of more efficient generation and use of energy, lower carbon-intensity of energy, and a more carbon-lean economy. The only technically feasible and cost-effective approach to achieving this goal on a meaningful scale is carbon pricing: that is, market-based climate policies that place a shadow-price on carbon dioxide emissions. We examine alternative designs of three such instruments: carbon taxes, cap and trade, and clean energy standards. We note that the U.S. political response to possible market-based approaches to climate policy has been, and will continue to be, largely a function of issues and structural factors that transcend the scope of environmental and climate policy.

scholarly journals Air quality co-benefits of ratcheting up the NDCs

2020 ◽  
Vol 163 (3) ◽  
pp. 1481-1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Rauner ◽  
Jérôme Hilaire ◽  
David Klein ◽  
Jessica Strefler ◽  
Gunnar Luderer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Regional Analysis ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Mitigation Costs

AbstractThe current nationally determined contributions, pledged by the countries under the Paris Agreement, are far from limiting climate change to below 2 ∘C temperature increase by the end of the century. The necessary ratcheting up of climate policy is projected to come with a wide array of additional benefits, in particular a reduction of today’s 4.5 million annual premature deaths due to poor air quality. This paper therefore addresses the question how climate policy and air pollution–related health impacts interplay until 2050 by developing a comprehensive global modeling framework along the cause and effect chain of air pollution–induced social costs. We find that ratcheting up climate policy to a 2 ∘ compliant pathway results in welfare benefits through reduced air pollution that are larger than mitigation costs, even with avoided climate change damages neglected. The regional analysis demonstrates that the 2 ∘C pathway is therefore, from a social cost perspective, a “no-regret option” in the global aggregate, but in particular for China and India due to high air quality benefits, and also for developed regions due to net negative mitigation costs. Energy and resource exporting regions, on the other hand, face higher mitigation cost than benefits. Our analysis further shows that the result of higher health benefits than mitigation costs is robust across various air pollution control scenarios. However, although climate mitigation results in substantial air pollution emission reductions overall, we find significant remaining emissions in the transport and industry sectors even in a 2 ∘C world. We therefore call for further research in how to optimally exploit climate policy and air pollution control, deriving climate change mitigation pathways that maximize co-benefits.

scholarly journals Co-benefits of black carbon mitigation for climate and air quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 163 (3) ◽  
pp. 1519-1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathijs J. H. M. Harmsen ◽  
Pim van Dorst ◽  
Detlef P. van Vuuren ◽  
Maarten van den Berg ◽  
Rita Van Dingenen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Integrated Assessment Model ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution

AbstractMitigation of black carbon (BC) aerosol emissions can potentially contribute to both reducing air pollution and climate change, although mixed results have been reported regarding the latter. A detailed quantification of the synergy between global air quality and climate policy is still lacking. This study contributes with an integrated assessment model-based scenario analysis of BC-focused mitigation strategies aimed at maximizing air quality and climate benefits. The impacts of these policy strategies have been examined under different socio-economic conditions, climate ambitions, and BC mitigation strategies. The study finds that measures targeting BC emissions (including reduction of co-emitted organic carbon, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxides) result in significant decline in premature mortality due to ambient air pollution, in the order of 4 to 12 million avoided deaths between 2015 and 2030. Under certain circumstances, BC mitigation can also reduce climate change, i.e., mainly by lowering BC emissions in the residential sector and in high BC emission scenarios. Still, the effect of BC mitigation on global mean temperature is found to be modest at best (with a maximum short-term GMT decrease of 0.02 °C in 2030) and could even lead to warming (with a maximum increase of 0.05 °C in case of a health-focused strategy, where all aerosols are strongly reduced). At the same time, strong climate policy would improve air quality (the opposite relation) through reduced fossil fuel use, leading to an estimated 2 to 5 million avoided deaths in the period up to2030. By combining both air quality and climate goals, net health benefits can be maximized.

CLIMATE POLICY IN CRISIS AND RECOVERY

2011 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 103-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN JONES ◽  
MICHAEL KEEN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Aggregate Demand ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Emissions Reduction ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Green Stimulus ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Output Losses

This paper focuses on the implications of the economic crisis and recession of 2008–2009 for climate change and related policy responses. Stressing that even prolonged output losses make very little difference to appropriate emissions reduction objectives, the paper argues that a cautious shift towards a more aggressive path of carbon pricing need not impede recovery and could make a valuable contribution to addressing looming fiscal challenges. Well-designed and monitored "green" stimulus measures can help sustain aggregate demand during the downturn, while increased climate-related public spending will likely be needed into the longer-term. However, it is critical to avoid undue reliance on spending rather than tax measures, particularly as the recovery strengthens.

The Controllability Precautionary Principle: Justification of a Climate Policy Goal Under Uncertainty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugen Pissarskoi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Goal ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Climate Change Policies

How can we reasonably justify a climate policy goal if we accept that only possible consequences from climate change are known? Precautionary principles seem to offer promising guidelines for reasoning in such epistemic situations. This chapter presents two versions of the precautionary principle (PP) and defends one of them as morally justifiable. However, it argues that current versions of the PP do not allow discrimination between relevant climate change policies. Therefore, the chapter develops a further version of the PP, the Controllability Precautionary Principle (CPP), and defends its moral plausibility. The CPP incorporates the following idea: in a situation when the possible outcomes of the available actions cannot be ranked with regard to their value, the choice between available options for action should rest on the comparison of how well decision makers can control the processes of the implementation of the available strategies.

scholarly journals What Stymies Action on Climate Change? Religious Institutions, Marginalization, and Efficacy in Kenya

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Lauren Honig ◽  
Amy Erica Smith ◽  
Jaimie Bleck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Critical Link

Addressing climate change requires coordinated policy responses that incorporate the needs of the most impacted populations. Yet even communities that are greatly concerned about climate change may remain on the sidelines. We examine what stymies some citizens’ mobilization in Kenya, a country with a long history of environmental activism and high vulnerability to climate change. We foreground efficacy—a belief that one’s actions can create change—as a critical link transforming concern into action. However, that link is often missing for marginalized ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious groups. Analyzing interviews, focus groups, and survey data, we find that Muslims express much lower efficacy to address climate change than other religious groups; the gap cannot be explained by differences in science beliefs, issue concern, ethnicity, or demographics. Instead, we attribute it to understandings of marginalization vis-à-vis the Kenyan state—understandings socialized within the local institutions of Muslim communities affected by state repression.

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