EU could save £20bn per year on health by cutting emissions

By Paul Eccleston | The Telegraph.co.uk

The EU could save an extra £20bn per year on health spending by setting tougher targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.

The savings could be made if the target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 was raised to 30 per cent, in line with the recommendations of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report, commissioned by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-E) and the conservation organisation WWF, claimed it would produce savings, resulting from better health, of between £4.9bn-£20bn.  The figures are based on economic evaluations of loss of life and health, working days lost and hospital costs.

The report claims a 30 per cent cut in emissions would cut hospital admissions by up to 30 per cent, cut cases of chronic bronchitis by 5,300 and result in 2m fewer working days being lost per year.

The EU’s impact assessment suggests that every year 369,000 people die prematurely due to air pollution, and that premature deaths, health care and medication associated with air pollution amount to 3-9 per cent of EU Gross Domestic Product.

Current predictions by the EU suggest savings of £40bn but the report claims that raising the target to 30 per cent could increase the savings to as much as £60bn per year.

Génon Jensen, executive director of Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) says: “Data clearly show that action to control global warming by reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions brings major benefits to health.

“This potential alone makes a case for immediately moving the European target to at least 30 per cent domestic cuts of greenhouse gases by 2020. The European Union should be showing leadership on this crucial determinant of our future.”

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Scientist group again warns Pa. on climate change

By Don Hopey | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Apples and sweet corn, brook trout and smallmouth bass, fall foliage and winter snow cover will all disappear from Pennsylvania if global warming-causing emissions continue at their current rates, according to a detailed, state-specific new climate change report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The report released today in Pittsburgh says that if global warming emissions of carbon dioxide are not significantly reduced, the state’s climate will warm significantly and by the end of the century closely resemble what Alabama and Georgia experience today.

The report follows up on a Concerned Scientists report released last year that analyzed climate change in the Northeast and comes a week after a University of Maryland study found the warming already underway will cost Pennsylvania billions of dollars in flood damage, water treatment and losses in milk production.

“After Texas and California, Pennsylvania is the third largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, and the emissions caps we choose now will determine how much our climate will change,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

By the end of the century, Ms. Ekwurzel said, if emissions continue unabated, Pittsburgh and other cities in the state will experience three months — whole summers — with 90-degree temperatures and 24 days with temperatures over 100.

If the state acts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, reducing them by 80 percent by 2050, the temperature increases could be limited to one month of days over 90 degrees and six days topping 100 degrees.

Erika Spanger-Siegfried, northeast climate project manager for the UCS, said the report is intended to provide a useful resource for Pennsylvania’s on-going climate change assessment process.

Reports: Global Warming Will Have Significant Economic Impacts On Florida Coasts

ScienceDaily

Leading Florida-based scientific researchers released two new studies today, including a Florida State University report finding that climate change will cause significant impacts on Florida’s coastlines and economy due to increased sea level rise.

A second study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University recommends that the state of Florida adopt a series of policy programs aimed at adapting to these large coastal and other impacts as a result of climate change. Key findings of the FAU report were included just this week by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s Climate and Energy Action Team when it adopted the “Adaptation” section of its final report.

“The impacts of climate change on Florida’s coasts and on our economy will be substantial, persistent and long-term, even under our conservative estimates,” said Julie Harrington, director of the Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis at FSU. “Should, as many models predict, sea level rise, and hurricane strength and other factors become more extreme, much greater economic impacts will occur along many parts of Florida’s coast in this century.”

The second new study, by researchers at FAU, focused on state adaptation policies needed as Florida faces the impacts of climate change.

“The goal of our study is to help the state of Florida adapt, in the most effective way possible, to climate change impacts that are now inevitable,” said Jim Murley, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions and leader of the study. “These approaches must be comprehensive and strategic, not piecemeal and episodic. Governor Crist and other leaders have rightly identified adapting to climate change as one of the state’s greatest challenges — we look forward to working with the state to protect our people, natural splendor, and economic livelihood. There is real work to be done.”

This research was supported by a grant from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a project of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

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Report says global warming could alter Pennsylvania

by FORD TURNER, Of The Patriot-News

Snowmobiling and skiing might become rare. Certain birds, fish, and trees might become hard to find. Summers would be hotter.

Those are some of the findings of a new report on how climate change could affect Pennsylvania.

The report was released this morning by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit environmental organization. It described two possible scenarios for Pennsylvania.

One was based on a future in which emissions that cause global warming continue to be released at a high rate by human activities. The other scenario was based on a future in which societies chose to rely less on fossil fuels and adopted more environmentally friendly technologies.

“If Pennsylvania and the rest of the world take action to dramatically reduce emissions consistent with or even below the lower-emissions scenario described in this report, some of the consequences noted … may be avoided,” the report said.

U.K.: Schools sent climate change packs

The Press Association

Thousands of secondary schools are being sent a teaching pack to tackle a lack of understanding about the potential “catastrophe” of climate change, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) said.

The materials sent out by the society cover energy and environment issues such as carbon emissions, biofuels, and carbon capture and storage technology.

Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the RSC, said he was concerned pupils were leaving school without understanding the problems they would face in the future.

He said the series of slides and text, drawn from lectures he has given and an article on “averting climate catastrophe”, aimed to give a comprehensive and succinct look at the topics – backed up with data.

The RSC is concerned youngsters are not learning enough of the science and mathematics of environmental issues to become fully informed – and are discussing the topics in a vacuum as a result.

For example a comparison of the relative amounts of land needed to create the same amount of energy from biofuels or solar power changes the debate over the two fuels “completely”, he said.

“We owe it to our children to give them reliable facts so that they can participate in the crucial informed debate necessary over the forthcoming years,” Dr Pike said.

“Slow changes in the curriculum and assessment processes are still resulting in even the bright pupils leaving school ill-equipped for some of the most important tasks they face in the future.”

He added: “It has been put to me that we shouldn’t talk about climate change because it makes children apprehensive about the future. But to be honest identifies the opportunities and the work that needs to be done.”

He said there were tremendous opportunities in the science relating to climate change, and he wanted to see that area of the curriculum prioritised and expanded.