“The USA will benefit from improved air quality in the future, through actions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions both domestically and globally.
That is the primary finding of new research led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters. It comes following the decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw the USA from the 2015 Paris Accord on climate change, which commits its signatories to actively work on reducing their GHG emissions.
The study examined the benefits of global and domestic GHG mitigation on US air quality and human health in 2050, comparing a scenario with no global action to reduce GHGs with an aggressive scenario that significantly slows climate change. The GHG reduction scenario emphasizes energy efficiency and shifts energy production and use away from highly polluting forms toward cleaner sources with less air pollution.”
Jason West recently co-authored this paper, “Co-benefits of global, domestic, and sectoral greenhouse gas mitigation for US air quality and human health in 2050” in Environmental Research Letters, that was featured by Phys.org, Newsweek and The Telegraph India.