A European Union mandate to reduce planet-warming gas pollution will not just impact the environment but also human health — particularly in Eastern Europe, new research finds.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, looked into the climate and health impacts of the European Climate Law, which codified a European Green Deal goal of the continent reaching climate-neutrality by 2050. As Boston University shared (via Tech Xplore), the study found that a country's climate and health burden are not always equal, based on the type of energy source used.
For example, the study found that the air-quality health burden is much higher than the climate burden in countries that rely primarily on coal or oil, such as Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece.
And even as countries move toward carbon-neutrality, their energy source will play a role in human health. Biofuels, the authors point out, are considered carbon-neutral, but their pollution has a higher health impact than renewable sources like wind and solar energy.
Nowhere could a green-energy shift make a bigger difference in public health than Eastern Europe.
"Saving the same amount of electricity in Estonia can deliver over 1,000 times more health benefits than in Sweden — a striking disparity that highlights the importance of targeted policies," Harvard researcher Gen Pai, the study's lead author, said.
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The EU's actions toward climate-neutrality seem to be working, as it saw a 2.9% decrease in carbon pollution in 2024, on the heels of an 8.5% reduction in 2023, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
And Eastern Europe seems to be leading that charge. Over the last five years, the region's nine biggest solar-producing countries increased their solar capacity by more than 450%, three times more than Europe as a whole.
Researchers hope their findings will help shape policymakers' thinking when it comes to how they reach carbon-neutrality, and not just how fast they can do so.
"We now have the capabilities to directly integrate public health considerations into energy policy," study co-author Jonathan Buonocore, an assistant professor at Boston University, said. "Making these external, invisible public health and climate costs visible to energy policymakers can yield massive benefits to public health."
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