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Clearing the air: incorporating air quality and environmental justice into climate policy

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Abstract

In addition to lower carbon dioxide emissions, policies to reduce fossil fuel combustion can yield substantial air quality co-benefits via reduced emissions of co-pollutants such as particulate matter and air toxics. If co-pollutant intensity (the ratio of co-pollutant impacts to carbon dioxide emissions) varies across pollution sources, efficient policy design would seek greater emissions reductions where co-benefits are higher. The distribution of co-benefits also raises issues of environmental equity. This paper presents evidence on intersectoral, intrasectoral and spatial variations in co-pollutant intensity of industrial point sources in the United States, and discusses options for integrating co-benefits into climate policy design to advance efficiency and equity.

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Acknowledgments

Research for this paper was supported by the Economics for Equity and Environment (E3) Network and by National Science Foundation Grant No. SES-1060904 and National Science Foundation Grant No. SES-1060882. The authors are grateful to Alice Kaswan, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Nicholas Muller, and David Adelman for helpful comments, and to Justin Scoggins, Owen Thompson, Mirabai Auer, and Alexis Doyle for research assistance. We are also grateful to three anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper.

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Correspondence to James K. Boyce.

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Boyce, J.K., Pastor, M. Clearing the air: incorporating air quality and environmental justice into climate policy. Climatic Change 120, 801–814 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0832-2

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