Evaluating public health co-benefits of New York state’s climate leadership and community protection act

David Cooley, Hillel Hammer, Caroline Watson, James Wilcox and Carl Mas

Climate Policy, 2025, vol. 25, issue 9, 1522-1535

Abstract: New York State enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) in 2019, setting the state on a path toward greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality by 2050. Achieving these GHG emission reduction targets would also result in a significant decrease in emissions of other air pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and other precursor pollutants. This study analyzes potential air quality and associated public health benefits from Climate Act implementation scenarios. In this study, we estimate reductions in emissions associated with the reduction in fuel combustion necessary to meet the Climate Act targets, including primary PM2.5 and precursors to PM2.5 formation — nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds. We estimated changes in emissions for both a policy scenario and a reference (business-as-usual) case for the following sectors: (1) electric-generating units; (2) on-road vehicles; (3) non-road engines; and (4) industrial, commercial, and residential buildings. We used the U.S. EPA’s CO-Benefits Risk Assessment Health Impacts Screening and Mapping Tool (COBRA) to model the effect of emissions reductions on PM2.5 concentrations and ensuing public health effects. We found notable reductions in annual PM2.5 emissions (55% by 2050) and NOx emissions (80% by 2050). The greatest projected contributors to health benefits are the commercial and residential buildings sector (60%) followed by on-road transportation (18%). Contributions from the electricity sector are relatively small, regardless of renewable electricity choices. Our findings indicate significant public health benefits, including more than 10,000 avoided premature deaths and thousands of avoided hospitalizations and emergency room visits. These benefits are valued at over $100 billion from 2020 to 2050, with urban areas experiencing greater benefits due to higher emissions reductions and larger populations.State-level GHG emission reductions would provide substantial air quality and public health benefits associated with reductions in fuel combustion in New York State.The air quality and public health benefits would be experienced throughout the state and some benefits would also occur in neighboring areas due to atmospheric transport of air pollution.While many states conduct qualitative analyses of air quality and health benefits of climate action, this study provides a robust framework for quantifying health benefits to provide a more complete understanding of the total benefits of GHG mitigation plans.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2025.2465765 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:25:y:2025:i:9:p:1522-1535

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tcpo20

DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2025.2465765

Access Statistics for this article

Climate Policy is currently edited by Professor Michael Grubb

More articles in Climate Policy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().