Health co-benefits and the development of climate change mitigation policies in the European Union

ABSTRACT

The 2015 Paris Agreement requires increasingly ambitious emissions reduction efforts from its member countries. Accounting for ancillary positive health outcomes (health co-benefits) that result from implementing climate change mitigation policies can provide Parties to the Paris Agreement with a sound rationale for introducing stronger mitigation strategies. Despite this recognition, a knowledge gap exists on the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies. To address this gap, the case study presented here investigates the role of health co-benefits in the development of European Union (EU) climate change mitigation policies through analysis and consideration of semi-structured interview data, government documents, journal articles and media releases. We find that while health co-benefits are an explicit consideration in the development of EU climate change mitigation policies, their influence on final policy outcomes has been limited. Our analysis suggests that whilst health co-benefits are a key driver of air pollution mitigation policies, climate mitigation policies are primarily driven by other factors, including economic costs and energy implications.

Key policy insights

• Health co-benefits are quantified and monetized as part of the development of EU climate change mitigation policies but their influence on the final policies agreed upon is limited.

• Barriers, such as the immediate economic costs associated with climate action, inhibit the influence of health co-benefits on the development of mitigation policies.

• Health co-benefits primarily drive the development of EU air pollution mitigation policies.

• The separation of responsibility for GHG and non-GHG emissions across Directorate Generals has decoupled climate change and air pollution mitigation policies, with consequences for the integration of health co-benefits in climate policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change mitigation
• public health
• ancillary benefits
• policy formation

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Dr. Michael Holland, EMRC, Professor Martin Williams, King’s College London, and staff at the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) for sharing their knowledge on the incorporation of health co-benefits into EU mitigation policies and the synergies and trade-offs between climate and air quality policies. Thanks also to Nick Parry for his feedback on a draft of the paper. We also wish to extend our gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which strengthened the final paper. AW is a member of Environmental Justice Australia’s Science Advisory Group on air pollution and health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

AW receives an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship through the University of Melbourne and received funding from the EU Centre on Shared Complex Challenges at the University of Melbourne to undertake research in Brussels, Belgium.