Climate Change in the Attention Arena of the Middle Class

Good intentions by the middle class are not always well guided and do not always lead to measurable or significant results. For example, efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions may hold broad appeal but can still have negligible impact. Therefore, it is suggested to embark on “Apollo projects”, which bundle the potential and willingness of the middle class. These projects should focus on the development of specific technologies, with economic advantages to support their spread throughout the world. Doing so will harness the middle class in support of greenhouse gas emission reductions in the gigaton-range. Such pan-national projects, for example, could address emission-free ship- or air-propulsion, the electrification of heating or of processes in the chemical industry.

Improving air quality and health in Northern Italy: limits and perspectives

A better air quality has led to a significant reduction of premature deaths over the past decade in Europe, as emissions of many pollutants declined considerably in the EU-27 Member States: SOx emissions by 76%, NOx by 42%, NMVOCs by 29% and PM2.5 by 29%. The present paper reports an in-depth analysis of the reasons why the regions of the Po valley, Northern Italy, still have difficulties to comply with EU air quality standards, in particular for PM10 and NO2, in spite of strong emission reductions carried out through careful Air Quality Plans put in practice during the last 2 decades. The analysis includes a consistent comparison of emission inventories for different European regions in Italy, Germany and Poland, the measured air quality trends and PM source apportionment in these areas, and, most of all, a thorough investigation of meteorological parameters influencing atmospheric pollutant dispersion and transport. The study reports that in the colder seasons, wind speed, PBL height and atmospheric pressure occurring in the Po basin are three to five times less efficient in diluting and dispersing pollutant if compared to regions north of the Alps. Due to the extremely disadvantageous orographic and climatic configuration of the Po Valley, only radical emission reductions could bring air quality into EU limit values with a questionable cost-benefit ratio of due policies. Provided that air quality standards (particularly for PM10 and PM2.5) aim at protecting people from adverse health effects arising from air pollution, it is however necessary to also consider the toxicity of atmospheric particulate in addition to PM10/PM2.5 mass concentration as a limit value. Based on existing toxicological studies and reports, a discussion is reported about PM toxicity factor depending on toxicity scores for source-specific aerosols and PM composition determined by Source Apportionment. Provided that PM components profiles are strongly different across Europe, the obtained PM toxicity factors range from 0.3 (for areas where the main PM contribution is referable to sea salts or inorganic matter) to 3.5 (where Elemental and Organic Carbon prevail), suggesting that, even at the same mass concentration, the effects of PM10/2.5 on human health are significantly variable and limit values should take into account differential toxicity. Modern PM Source Apportionment techniques, along with reliable toxicity and epidemiological analyses, represent the right tools to overcome the shortcomings of the current regulation standard and build a new consistent health metric for ambient PM in the future, helping policy makers impose effective air quality measures to protect people health.

Climate change action and COP

As Climate Change has become the focal point of discussion across all sectors, entities and cities, mainstreaming it with country’s agenda be it in the parliament or via varied reporting conundrum is on all time high this decade. As leadership forays, be it as a key chair, leader, negotiator, observer, moderator, panelist, scientist, peer group or as an institutional representee – how country’s spearheads or leads the negotiations and table in the discussion for better facilitation and pathway depends on its strong legislative backing. There are varied framework, methodologies and articles available as per IPCC, UNFCCC and other global compacts (GHG inventory) on the basis of which quantification and emission reductions and its trajectories are framed; however, every country’s sectoral emission differs and so does the standardization.

Health benefits of decreases in on-road transportation emissions in the United States from 2008 to 2017

Decades of air pollution regulation have yielded enormous benefits in the United States, but vehicle emissions remain a climate and public health issue. Studies have quantified the vehicle-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-attributable mortality but lack the combination of proper counterfactual scenarios, latest epidemiological evidence, and detailed spatial resolution; all needed to assess the benefits of recent emission reductions. We use this combination to assess PM2.5-attributable health benefits and also assess the climate benefits of on-road emission reductions between 2008 and 2017. We estimate total benefits of $270 (190 to 480) billion in 2017. Vehicle-related PM2.5-attributable deaths decreased from 27,700 in 2008 to 19,800 in 2017; however, had per-mile emission factors remained at 2008 levels, 48,200 deaths would have occurred in 2017. The 74% increase from 27,700 to 48,200 PM2.5-attributable deaths with the same emission factors is due to lower baseline PM2.5 concentrations (+26%), more vehicle miles and fleet composition changes (+22%), higher baseline mortality (+13%), and interactions among these (+12%). Climate benefits were small (3 to 19% of the total). The percent reductions in emissions and PM2.5-attributable deaths were similar despite an opportunity to achieve disproportionately large health benefits by reducing high-impact emissions of passenger light-duty vehicles in urban areas. Increasingly large vehicles and an aging population, increasing mortality, suggest large health benefits in urban areas require more stringent policies. Local policies can be effective because high-impact primary PM2.5 and NH3 emissions disperse little outside metropolitan areas. Complementary national-level policies for NOx are merited because of its substantial impacts—with little spatial variability—and dispersion across states and metropolitan areas.

Reducing carbon footprint of inhalers: analysis of climate and clinical implications of different scenarios in five European countries

BackgroundInhaled therapies are key components of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatments. Although the use of pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) accounts for <0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, their contribution to global warming has been debated and efforts are underway to reduce the carbon footprint of pMDIs. Our aim was to establish the extent to which different scenarios led to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions associated with inhaler use, and their clinical implications.MethodsWe conducted a series of scenario analyses using asthma and COPD inhaler usage data from 2019 to model carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions reductions over a 10-year period (2020–2030) in the UK, Italy, France, Germany and Spain: switching propellant-driven pMDIs for propellant-free dry-powder inhalers (DPIs)/soft mist inhalers (SMIs); transitioning to low global warming potential (GWP) propellant (hydrofluoroalkane (HFA)-152a) pMDIs; reducing short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) use; and inhaler recycling.ResultsTransition to low-GWP pMDIs and forced switching to DPI/SMIs (excluding SABA inhalers) would reduce annual CO2e emissions by 68%–84% and 64%–71%, respectively, but with different clinical implications. Emission reductions would be greatest (82%–89%) with transition of both maintenance and SABA inhalers to low-GWP propellant. Only minimising SABA inhaler use would reduce CO2e emissions by 17%–48%. Although significant greenhouse gas emission reductions would be achieved with high rates of end-of-life recycling (81%–87% of the inhalers), transition to a low-GWP propellant would still result in greater reductions.ConclusionsWhile the absolute contribution of pMDIs to global warming is very small, substantial reductions in the carbon footprint of pMDIs can be achieved with transition to low-GWP propellant (HFA-152a) inhalers. This approach outperforms the substitution of pMDIs with DPI/SMIs while preserving patient access and choice, which are essential for optimising treatment and outcomes. These findings require confirmation in independent studies.

Fairness, effectiveness, and needs satisfaction: new options for designing climate policies

Financial compensations are often proposed to address regressive distributional impacts of carbon taxes. While financial compensations have shown to benefit vulnerable groups distributionally, little is known about their impacts on emission reduction or needs satisfaction. A potential problem with cash compensations is that if households spend this money back into the economy while no additional decarbonisation policies are implemented, emission reductions that arose from the tax may at least partly be reversed. In this letter, we compare the emission savings and impacts on fuel and transport poverty of two compensation options for carbon taxes in 27 European countries. The first option consists of equal per capita rebates for home energy and motor fuel taxes. The second option is the provision of universal green vouchers for renewable electricity and public transport, supported by additional investments in green infrastructures to meet increased demand for such green consumption. Results show that the first option of tax rebates only supports small emission reductions. In contrast, universal green vouchers with expanded green infrastructures would reduce home energy emissions by 92.3 MtCO2e or 13.4%, and motor fuel emissions by 177.5 MtCO2e or 23.8%. If green vouchers and infrastructure were provided without a prior tax, emission savings would be slightly lower compared to the ‘tax and voucher’ scheme, but fuel and transport poverty would drop by 4.1 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, taxes with rebates would increase fuel and transport poverty by 4.1 and 1.8 percentage points. These findings demonstrate that it is important to take environmental and energy poverty impacts of compensations for unfair distributional impacts of climate policies into account at the design stage. Such compensation measures can achieve higher emission reductions and reduce energy poverty if they involve an expansion of the provision of green goods and services, and if everyone is given fair access to these goods and services.