Nature Communications (May 2019)

The impact of human health co-benefits on evaluations of global climate policy

  • Noah Scovronick,
  • Mark Budolfson,
  • Francis Dennig,
  • Frank Errickson,
  • Marc Fleurbaey,
  • Wei Peng,
  • Robert H. Socolow,
  • Dean Spears,
  • Fabian Wagner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09499-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Aerosol impacts have not been comprehensively considered in the cost-benefit integrated assessment models that are widely used to analyze climate policy. Here the authors account for these impacts and find that the health co-benefits from improved air quality outweigh the co-harms from increased near-term warming, and that optimal climate policy results in immediate net benefits globally.