Cutting carbon emissions is important for obvious reasons, but recent research shows that on top of all its benefits, it could significantly reduce healthcare costs. In turn, this would offset the cost of reducing emissions in the first place.
A new study, published in Nature Climate Change by researchers at MIT, says the cost to cut carbon emissions is made up by savings in healthcare costs.
"Carbon-reduction policies significantly improve air quality," said Noelle Selin, co-author of the study. "In fact, policies aimed at cutting carbon emissions improve air quality by a similar amount as policies specifically targeting air pollution."
In the study, Selin and his colleagues collected data about economic costs on climate policies. The researchers found that the savings on health care spending are large - sometimes 10 times the cost of implementing carbon-reduction policies.
They looked at three different climate policies and the costs associated with them: a clean-energy standard, a transportation policy and a cap-and-trade program.
Each policy has costs associated with them in relation to healthcare spending. They found that the savings were 10.5 times the cost of putting in a cap-and-trade program, but only 26 percent of the cost of a transportation policy.
Researchers caution, however, that more carbon-reduction policies have to be made, not just the cuts that bring the largest air-pollution benefits. In other words, the health benefits will eventually maximize before the carbon-reduction policies have been fully realized. Additional measures will not necessarily lead to more health care savings.
"While air-pollution benefits can help motivate carbon policies today, these carbon policies are just the first step," Selin said. "To manage climate change, we'll have to make carbon cuts that go beyond the initial reductions that lead to the largest air-pollution benefits."
However, forcing companies to adopt green policies has not proven effective in the past; incentives have to be put in place and the decisions left up to the companies regarding whether they want to take advantage of such incentives.
According to a press release about the study, this is the most detailed assessment about the costs and effects of climate policy on the economy, air pollution and healthcare costs.
