Co-Benefits of Global and Domestic Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Air Quality and Human Health
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1-1-2017
Description
Most co-benefits studies have been conducted on local or national scales. However, we find that for a coordinated international GHG reduction, much of the air quality and health benefits come from GHG reductions in foreign nations. This is particularly true for ozone, which has a longer atmospheric lifetime than PM2.5, and which is affected by methane reductions. Together these findings show that co-benefits for air quality and health are greater when GHG reductions are coordinated with other nations. These results also show that previous co-benefits studies on local or national scale may significantly underestimate the total co-benefits by omitting i.) the benefits of domestic pollutant reductions for regions outside of the domain considered, and ii.) the benefits of foreign GHG reductions if the domestic reduction is coordinated with international action.
Citation Information
Jason West, J.; Zhang, Yuqiang; Smith, Steven J.; Silva, Raquel A.; Bowden, Jared H.; Naik, Vaishali; Li, Ying; Gilfillan, Dennis; Adelman, Zachariah; Fry, Meridith M.; Anenberg, Susan C.; Horowitz, Larry; and Lamarque, Jean Francois. 2017. Co-Benefits of Global and Domestic Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Air Quality and Human Health. Air and Waste Management Association, A and WMA - Finding Common Ground on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. Vol.2017-October 489-503. ISBN: 9781510855649