Burning fossil fuels creates harmful air pollution that can worsen lung disease, heart disease, and other health conditions. A new study estimates that air pollution from burning fossil fuels caused 8.7 million premature deaths worldwide in the year 2018 alone. That’s almost one out of every five deaths that year.
“We’re showing that there is an immediate impact, a public health emergency,” says Eloise Marais of University College London. Their analysis included power plants and other emissions sources, including vehicles, trains, diesel generators, and coal used in homes. They drew on the latest epidemiological research, which allowed them to improve upon previous estimates of the health consequences of all that air pollution.
Marais says their findings reveal the enormous cost, in human lives, of continuing to burn fossil fuels – and underscore the need to transition to cleaner sources of energy.
“There needs to be a far more urgent response to our dependence on fossil fuels,” Marais says.
Cities are responsible for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors. Some cities are quickly moving towards a green environment. Copenhagen, in Denmark, has already cut its emissions by 42 percent from 2005 levels, mainly by moving away from fossil fuels to generate heat and electricity. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/04/air-pollution-from-fossil-fuels-caused-8-7-million-premature-deaths-in-2018-study-finds/?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_DAILY_042821). https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/cities/cities-and-climate-change