A report released this week by the US Global Change Research Program offered the strongest evidence to date linking climate change to health risks, such as the spread of insect borne diseases and an increase in deaths caused by extreme weather events. President Obama’s top scientific advisor John Holdren said in a briefing “This report adds considerably to the impetus on the Clean Power Plan and the agreement reached in Paris.”
RFF’s Dallas Burtraw, in collaboration with researchers at Syracuse, Harvard, and Boston University, researched the air quality and health co-benefits of adopting a carbon standard similar to what was proposed in EPA’s June 2014 Clean Power Plan. Burtraw explains in a blogpost, “Our research indicates that a strong carbon standard can significantly reduce several pollutants—including soot and smog, which have important consequences for public health—saving 3,500 lives per year nationwide, starting in the year 2020.”
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