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Coal-exit health and environmental damage reductions outweigh economic impacts

Authors
/persons/resource/Sebastian.Rauner

Rauner,  Sebastian
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/Nicolas.Bauer

Bauer,  Nicolas
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/dirnaichner

Dirnaichner,  Alois
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Van Dingenen,  R.
External Organizations;

Mutel,  C.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Gunnar.Luderer

Luderer,  Gunnar
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

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Citation

Rauner, S., Bauer, N., Dirnaichner, A., Van Dingenen, R., Mutel, C., Luderer, G. (2020): Coal-exit health and environmental damage reductions outweigh economic impacts. - Nature Climate Change, 10, 4, 308-312.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0728-x


Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_23847
Abstract
Cheap and abundant coal fuelled the industrialization of Europe, North America and Asia1. However, the price tag on coal has never reflected the external cost to society; coal combustion produces more than a third of today’s global CO2 emissions and is a major contributor to local adverse effects on the environment and public health, such as biodiversity loss and respiratory diseases. Here, we show that phasing out coal yields substantial local environmental and health benefits that outweigh the direct policy costs due to shortening of the energy supply. Phasing out coal is thus a no-regret strategy for most world regions, even when only accounting for domestic effects and neglecting the global benefits from slowing climate change. Our results suggest that these domestic effects potentially eliminate much of the free-rider problem caused by the discrepancy between the national burden of decarbonization costs and the internationally shared benefits of climate change impact mitigation. This, combined with the profound effect of closing around half of the global CO2 emissions gap towards the 2 °C target, makes coal phase-out policies attractive candidates for the iterative strengthening of the nationally determined contributions pledged by the countries under the Paris Agreement.