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In 2005, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from residential energy use hit an all-time high in the United States. Each year since, emissions have dropped at an average annual rate of 2 percent.
In a study published in
Environmental Research Letters, Drivers of change in US residential energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2015, a team of researchers from the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) outlined several factors that have contributed to this decrease, highlighting efficiencies in new home construction, energy consumption and household appliances, as well as less emissions in electric generation. Without the reductions in GHG intensity of electricity, residential GHG emissions would have been higher, growing by 30 percent from 1990 to 2015 rather than the current 6 percent, says YSE PhD student Peter Berrill from the Center for Industrial Ecology, who co-authored the paper with Ken Gillingham, associate professor of economics at YSE, and former YS
Pollution from natural gas is now responsible for more deaths and greater health costs than coal in Illinois, according to a new study highlighting another hazard of burning fossil fuels that are scrambling the planetâs climate.
Researchers at Harvard University found that a shift away from coal during the past decade saved thousands of lives and dramatically reduced health impacts from breathing particulate matter, commonly known as soot. But the numbers declined only slightly for gas, another fossil fuel that by 2017 accounted for the greatest health risks.
About half the deaths from soot exposure that year can be attributed to the stateâs reliance on gas to heat homes and businesses, the study found. Coal is more deadly only when used to generate electricity.
Published: Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Colorado coal-fired plant. Photo credit: Craig Station/Wikimedia Commons
A coal-fired power plant in Colorado. Craig Station/Wikimedia Commons
Coal-fired power generation and its notoriously dirty emissions are rapidly declining, but the potential health gains from cleaner air are being stymied by biomass burning and combustion sources, Harvard University researchers found in a new study.
The study, published online today in the journal
Environmental Research Letters, examines the number of early deaths linked to soot from power plants, boilers and other stationary combustion sources from 2008 through 2017.
As coal-fired electricity plants steadily retired during that time, the share of premature deaths linked to soot from sources like natural gas-fired power plants, wood stoves and industrial boilers that burn wood pellets climbed to an estimated 70% or so of the total, the paper found.
Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, where he conducts research and writes on climate change, energy, air pollution, water policy, and the politics of regulation in the developing world. He is also an Honorary Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Navroz has been actively engaged in the climate debate as a scholar, policy adviser and activist for 25 years. He was instrumental in establishing the global Climate Action Network in 1990, and has since written widely about climate politics, policy and governance. He is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth Assessment), advises the UNEP Emissions Gap Report Steering Committee, and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UN Climate Action Summit. Within India, Navroz has been a member of the group that developed India’s Low Carbon Strategy for Inclusive Growth and the Committee for a Long Term Strategy for Low Carbon De