Two Massachusetts bills that would put a fee on greenhouse gas emissions —except for their use in generating electricity — and provide rebates to residents and employers could potentially save hundreds of lives and generate an estimated $2.9 billion in total health benefits over the next 23 years, according to a report published April 27, 2017 by researchers at the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Lead author Jonathan Buonocore, research associate and program leader at CHGE, and colleagues built a model to calculate the health co-benefits that could result from the greenhouse gas emission fees generated by bills S.1821 and H.1726 in Massachusetts from 2017 through 2040. They predicted $2.9 billion of cumulative health benefits, including 340 lives saved and 26 heart attacks prevented.
“The health benefits of the carbon fee would largely be driven by reductions in emissions from transportation and from buildings, and people nearer these sources would experience much of the health benefits,” the authors wrote.
Other Harvard Chan School researchers included Renzo Guinto, DrPH ’19, and Aaron Bernstein.
Read a summary of the report: Health Co-Benefits of a Carbon Fee-and-Rebate Bill in MA
Read the full report: Air Quality and Health Co-Benefits of a Carbon Fee-and-Rebate Bill in Massachusetts
Learn more
Most U.S. counties could gain $1m in annual health benefits from a power plant carbon standard (Harvard Chan press release)
Clean air and health benefits of clean power plan hinge on key policy decisions (Harvard Chan press release)
Climate Change: Health and Disease Threats (The Harvard Chan School Forum)
Climate Change and Health (Harvard Chan website articles)