Photo by: Pixabay user sarangib

New Harvard study shows where global renewable energy investments have the greatest climate and health benefits

11/12/2019 | Harvard C-CHANGE

New metrics can guide investors and policymakers working to reach sustainable development goals

BOSTON – A new study finds that the amount of climate and health benefits achieved from renewable energy depends on the country where it is installed. Countries with higher carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and more air pollution, such as India, China, and areas in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, achieve greater climate and health benefits per megawatt (MW) of renewable energy installed than those operating in areas such as North America, Brazil, and parts of Europe. The study in Palgrave Communications by the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) offers a new method for transparently estimating country-level climate and health benefits from renewable energy and transportation improvements that companies, investors, and policymakers can use to make strategic decisions around achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Researchers measured two types of benefits—climate benefits (reductions in carbon emissions) and health benefits (decreased mortality attributable to harmful air pollution)—and developed a user-friendly model to compare how those benefits vary based on where renewable energy is operating. They found climate benefits are greatest in countries where the electricity grid is largely powered by coal with less-efficient plants, including Mongolia, Botswana, Estonia, Iraq, and Australia. Health benefits are greatest in countries with higher population densities where people are living downwind of emissions sources, including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, and large parts of Eastern Europe.

“This new global model allows us to estimate benefits from renewables at the country-level, both from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and including the massive health benefits achieved from reductions in air pollution. That hasn’t been done before in the sustainable investment world,” said lead author Jonathan Buonocore, a research associate at Harvard C-CHANGE. “For example, the results show that a wind turbine or solar panel can save 30 times more lives if it is placed in India— where air pollution is often a major public health issue—than if that same turbine or panel is placed in the U.S., and climate benefits will be about twice as high.”

This framework can be used by policymakers and investors to reach the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN in 2015. The goals include ensuring access to clean and affordable energy (SDG 7) and promoting good health and wellbeing (SDG 3) by 2030.

“The private sector, and investors in particular, have a unique opportunity to influence how an estimated $2.5 trillion per year can be invested to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Investors can use this data-driven, replicable model as a guide to make sustainable investments more effectively and efficiently,” said Dr. Dinah A. Koehler, Sc.D., Harvard School of Public Health (2003), and Head of Research at Net Purpose. She initiated this research collaboration while at UBS Asset Management.

This latest study in Palgrave is part of a series meant to help investors take meaningful climate action through their investments. Its methodology draws from research the authors published in Science last year, which sought to build a broader framework with standardized metrics that can be used by investors looking to create portfolios that are climate- and health-friendly.

“People are increasingly concerned with whether or not their investments contribute to a healthier, more sustainable world, but it’s not always clear which companies are actually providing a benefit to society,” said senior author Ramon Sanchez, a research associate in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard Chan School. “Our framework can discern the actual climate and health benefits that companies are having around the world through their products and services. Investors in these companies can have more confidence in the positive impacts they’re making on health and the environment.”

A similar study from Harvard Chan that assesses the benefits of renewable energy in different locations across the United States was published recently in Environmental Research Letters. It affirmed that location is crucial for determining health and climate benefits of renewable energy deployment, and is largely driven by what fuel sources are displaced, what those emissions are, and how many people live downwind.

To show how this model can be used, researchers compared five anonymized renewable energy companies that report country-level operating data. It showed there was significant variation in the amount of climate and health benefits achieved per MW of renewable energy installed depending on where the company was operating. For example, Wind Company C, which operates mostly in India, saves about 250 lives per 1000 additional MW of wind energy installed per year, while Wind Companies A and B, which operate mostly in North America and Europe, save only 25 lives with the same amount of wind energy installed.

The study was a joint effort between Jonathan Buonocore, Ernani Choma, Aleyda Villavicencio, Jack Spengler, John Evans, and Ramon Alberto Sanchez Piña from Harvard, Dinah Koehler formerly at UBS, now Net Purpose, Jos Lelieveld from the Max Planck Institute, and Piet Klop from PGGM.

“Metrics for the Sustainable Development Goals: Renewable Energy and Transportation,” Jonathan J. Buonocore, Ernani Choma, Aleyda H. Villavicencio, John D. Spengler, Dinah A. Koehler, John S. Evans, Jos Lelieveld, Piet Klop, Ramon Sanchez, Palgrave Communications, November 12, 2019, doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0336-4

About Harvard C-CHANGE

The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) increases public awareness of the health impacts of climate change and uses science to make it personal, actionable, and urgent. Led by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and Co-director Dr. Aaron Bernstein, the Center leverages Harvard’s cutting-edge research to inform policies, technologies, and products that reduce air pollution and other causes of climate change. By making climate change personal, highlighting solutions, and emphasizing the important role we all play in driving change, Harvard C-CHANGE puts health outcomes at the center of climate actions. To learn more visit https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/.

Contact: Anna Miller, amiller@hsph.harvard.edu

House Dust in Mining-Impacted Communities May Impact Children's Health

Young children are a particular concern because early exposures to metals commonly found at mining sites are associated with neurodevelopmental deficits.

Read Now

Full Cost Accounting for the Life Cycle of Coal

Life cycle impacts of coal cost the US public a third to over one half a trillion dollars annually.

Read Now

How Dangerous are Underground Natural Gas Storage Wells?

Study explores the risks of aging infrastructure throughout the United States.

Read Now

Health and Climate Benefits of Offshore Wind

Offshore wind facilities could save many lives and billions of dollars.

Read Now

Air Pollution Within EPA Standards Affects Our Lungs

The Air Quality Index (AQI), developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tells us how clean or polluted our outdoor air is. It’s a useful tool to help us understand whether outdoor air is considered safe or risky.

Read Now

Estimating Public Health Impacts from Individual Power Plants

A tool to help policy-makers design policies and interventions.

Read Now

Health Co-Benefits of Carbon Standards for Existing Power Plants

Analyzing the clean air and health benefits of power plant carbon standards in the U.S.

Read Now

Costs and Health Co-Benefits for a U.S. Power Plant Carbon Standard

Reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants can have important “co-benefits” for public health by reducing emissions of air pollutants.

Read Now

Health Benefits of Renewable Energy

How renewable energy is good for your health.

Read Now

We need to get fossil gas out of homes, for the climate and our health

Our Health Equity Fellow Dr. Gaurab Basu explains what drove him to electrify his home.

Read Now

Environmental News: Super Pollutants Lurking In Your AC, Biden's Support For Electric Cars And Cape Cod Residents' Climate Dilemma

Our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein talks with Callie Crossley, Beth Daley, and Cabell Eames about the dangers of heat, the health impacts of air conditioning, and rising tides on Cape Cod.

Read Now

Adding A Climate Lens To Health Policy In The United States

Our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas and Interim Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein outline specific recommendations for achieving climate action through health policy and decision making.

Read Now

Climate Change is Making Us Sick

Our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas comments on the findings from the 2020 Lancet Countdown report and how climate change is harming our health today.

Read Now

'We Don't Have To Live This Way': Doctors Call For Climate Action

A sprawling analysis published by The Lancet focuses on public health data from 2019, and finds that heat waves, air pollution and extreme weather increasingly damage human health.

Read Now

Clean Energy Futures Project shows low or zero carbon emissions policies for the electricity sector are achievable with climate and health benefits by 2040 to 2050

New research from Clean Energy Futures Project shows low or zero carbon emissions policies for the electricity sector are achievable with climate and health benefits by 2040 to 2050

Read Now

Trump's EPA rewrote the rules on air, water energy. Now voters face a choice on climate change issues

New research finds that it's possible to get to zero emissions in the electricity sector within two decades.

Read Now

Rich Americans spew more carbon pollution at home than poor

Rich Americans produce nearly 25% more heat-trapping gases than poorer people at home, according to a new study.

Read Now

More renewables will mean less asthma and heart disease in the Midwest

A transition to renewable energy in the Midwest is good for our health.

Read Now

Solar energy

Unpack the shift to solar, how to do it, why it matters, and what it can do for our environment and health with our researcher, Jonathan Buonocore.

Read Now