Assessing the climate and health impacts of energy consumption in European Union countries

Gen Pei , Jonathan Buonocore, Parichehr Salimifard, Brian Sousa, Lauren Ferguson, Joseph G. Allen

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Note: This article has been published in Environmental Research Letters. Please refer to the published version: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/add752

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Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are routinely counted in energy and climate policies, yet the immediate health burden of air pollution emissions from combusting these fuels is rarely quantified alongside. Particularly, the European Union (EU) comprises countries with diverse energy mixes, emission characteristics, reduction technologies, and policy frameworks, leading to large variations in the impacts of energy consumption on climate, air quality, and public health. Understanding these country-level variations is critical to optimize regional energy policies and reduce climate and health disparities in the EU. This study quantifies the regional variations in both climate and health impacts of energy consumption across EU countries. In countries where coal or oil dominates power supply, the health impacts of electricity consumption can be larger than climate impacts by more than ten times (e.g., Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece), highlighting the necessity of incorporating health impacts into climate and energy policies. We found a significant variability in health impacts per electricity usage (1.4-1508 €/MWh) among EU countries, largely driven by their energy source mix. The health benefits of sustainable energy strategies can be notably higher in Eastern Europe countries than those in Western or Northern Europe. For instance, saving the same amount of electricity in Estonia could achieve health benefits 1043 times greater than in Sweden. Furthermore, our results suggest that energy policies and reports with biomass lumped into renewables can overlook its potential health burden. The dataset of climate and health impact factors produced in this study can be useful for future research, practice, and policymaking to quantify the burdens of energy consumption or assess the benefits of energy efficiency measures in the EU.