The Economic Argument

Reducing countries’ air pollution can substantially offset the cost of achieving the Paris climate goals.

In China and India, the health co-benefits alone would cover the entire cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, found Anil Markandya and colleagues. In that part of the world, going the extra mile to limit temperature increase to 1·5°C rather than 2°C would save trillions. Such benefits could justify much stronger mitigation measures for some countries.

The benefits were less sweeping in other regions. Health co-benefits could cover 7-84% of emissions reductions in the EU, and 10-41% in the US.

The Lancet Planetary Health