Friends With Co-Benefits, Zero-Emissions Vehicles
The article discussed:
When we consider cutting our addiction to fossil fuels we are often primarily motivated by the need to prevent the production of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Another scourge that impacts planetary health is pollution. It is estimated that 7 million people around the world die every year from outdoor and indoor air pollution, and many more are adversely impacted. Often the poor and vulnerable suffer the most. In some cases, efforts to take care of one problem helps improve both problems, climate change and pollution, a type of “co-benefit.”
In their “Be the Expert” podcast (available on many podcast platforms) of October 16, 2023, part of the Climate Clinic series of podcasts from the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, physicans Adesh Sundaresan and Marc Futernick discuss a recent study on the effects of increasing the number of zero-emissions vehicles in California from 2013 to 2019. The study they discussed was: E. Gracia et al, California’s early transition to electric vehicles: observed health and air quality co-benefits. Science of the Total Environment 867 (2023) 161761. The article is behind a paywall (unless you have access through a library or institution that has a subscription). However, it is well summarized in the podcast. Here are the highlights:
More zero-emission vehicles (ZEM) in California over the study period resulted in less nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution in California, the pollutant they looked at. The decrease did not reach statistical significance. This may simply be that there are not yet enough ZEM or there are other sources of NO2 that mask the effect of ZEM. Note that the number of zero-emissions vehicles has been increasing since the study period, and perhaps a larger effect can be expected in the near future.
They also associated more zero-emission vehicles with less emergency department visits for asthma. Other health outcomes were not examined, such as potential benefits for other lung or heart disease.
Since they looked at the data by zip (postal) codes, they could estimate socio-economic status using the level of education (how many in the zip code graduated from high school, college, etc.) using zip code as a surrogate marker. They found that in zip codes with lower educational attainment there were less ZEM and less lowering of NO2 and the rate of emergency room visits for asthma. This brings up important issues of fairness, what the authors term an “adoption gap” in the summary image above. Perhaps we should subsidize these vehicles more aggressively?
This study is consistent with earlier studies on co-benefits. It is an important reminder that co-benefits are powerful and will likely become more clear and helpful as we wean off fossil fuels.