A Princeton study underscores the health benefits of an all-of-society clean energy transition, suggesting that coordinated policy efforts across various sectors and actors could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.  

Transitioning to clean energy is not just about reducing carbon emissions - it’s also about saving lives.  According to a Princeton-led study, reducing emissions from American power plants, buildings, and vehicles not only mitigates climate change, but it also leads to significant improvements in air quality and reduces harmful pollutants like fine particulate matter (PM2.5).  

For this study, the researchers used a multi-scale modeling approach that combines energy system modeling,  air quality modeling and public health evidence  to assess the health benefits in the United States.  Specifically, the study first estimated the energy and emissions impacts of various policy scenarios with actions from federal, state, city, and business actors. It then downscaled the emissions to fine scale and applied atmospheric chemical transport models to estimate changes in pollutant concentrations under different policy scenarios.  The researchers then linked these air quality changes to health outcomes using the exposure-response relationships derived from epidemiological studies.  

“The energy transition is complicated and sometimes contentious, partly because it involves a diverse group of stakeholders, ranging from federal, state, and local governments to businesses and communities”, says Dr. Wei Peng, an assistant professor at the School of Public and International Affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. “Figuring out how to leverage and combine actions from all these actors to maximize local benefits will be important to promote widespread public support for this transition. With a focus on the health benefits, this study aims to offer insights into this critical policy challenge ”.