Public health aspects of carbon trading and other mechanisms for the reduction of global warming

1
Public health aspects of carbon trading and other
mechanisms for the reduction of global warming

• Ramon Sanchez.
• Harvard School of Public Health
• October 7, 2009

2
Outline

• Global warming issue and some of its potential
  effects
• Carbon Cap and Trade, Carbon Trading, Carbon
  Credits, Carbon Offsets and some clean
  development funds
• Potential health trends derived from carbon
  trading and other economic and policy mechanisms
  to reduce global warming.

3
Global Warming

• Human activities generate carbon dioxide
  emissions to the atmosphere, we exhale CO2 in our
  breathing, so why are these emissions bad??

4
Changing CO2 Composition
Rate increasing
Data from Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics
Lab., NOAA. Data prior to 1974 from C. Keeling,
Scripps Inst. Oceanogr.
5
Carbon dioxide historical high

• Increase in carbon dioxide emissions (280 ppm in
  1900, 335 ppm in 1978, 380 ppm in 2008)

Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Association (US)
6
Global Warming

• Carbon dioxide emissions

Courtesy of Tom Peterson and Jack Spengler
7
Global Mean Temperatures rising faster with time
IPCC
8
Effects of rising temperatures in human
populations
Courtesy of Dr. Samuel Myers, Harvard Medical
School
9
Severity of hurricanes has increased due to
higher sea water temperatures
Katrina August 2005
NCDC NOAA
10
New Orleans after Katrina
NCDC NOAA
11
Greenland ice melt
12
Greenlands summer river
13
Sea level is rising from ocean expansion and
melting of glaciers
Since 1992 Global sea level has risen 48 mm
(1.9 inches) 60 from expansion as ocean
temperatures rise, 40 from melting
glaciers Courtesy Steve Nerem U Colo
14
Potential effects of sea level rise Bangladesh
case
15
minimum prediction 1 meterrise in sea-level
30,000,000people displaced 20of the land will
vanish 30of the rice crop will disappear
16
Potential effects of sea level rise New York
case?
17
Is Global Warming the new normal??
How do we stop or reduce global warming?
18
Identification of main CO2 emissions sources in
the USA
19
Policy and economic intervention Cap and Trade
of CO2
Every company is issued a permit for carbon
emissions, if the company cannot comply with its
requirement, it can buy additional permits to
emit CO2 from another company that has not
reached its emissions limit. A company can also
buy carbon offsets
20
Another (more colloquial) explanation for Cap
and Trade
http//www.hulu.com/watch/100352/the-daily-show-wi
th-jon-stewart-carbon-copouts-p1-st-i1
Source The daily show with Jon Stewart, October
5, 2009
21
Carbon Trading Buy and sell permits to emit
carbon dioxide
22
Carbon Trading in action
Clean infrastructure is built to provide carbon
credits and/or offsets
Industry or power plant needs carbon offsets
Company buys carbon offsets or carbon credits in
a carbon exchange market
A fund is created to finance clean energy projects
23
More explanations on carbon trading
1 carbon credit 1 ton of CO2 emissions
reduction equivalent Carbon offset payment for
the permit to emit carbon dioxide from another
company/entity that possess that right
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9c3KVeceD6w
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYfQyPl6BkP4NR1
24
Some rules for carbon funds

• Demonstrate that you could not make a project
  without carbon credits. If you already have
  sufficient funding, carbon credits can not be
  used as a way to subsidize a given project (no
  matter how green it is)
• Permanently reduce carbon emissions (remove it
  from the atmosphere)
• Companies cannot increase industrial capacity in
  a business as usual way just by buying carbon
  credits

25
Some sustainable international development funds

• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Arrangement
  under the Kyoto Protocol that allows
  industrialized nations with a greenhouse gas
  commitment to invest in projects that reduce
  emissions in developing countries as an
  alternative to more expensive reductions in their
  own countries
• Joint Implementation Projects (JIP) Arrangement
  under the Kyoto Protocol that allows an
  industrialized nation with a greenhouse gas
  commitment to invest in projects that reduce
  emissions in another developed country as a way
  to reduce the cost of reducing domestic carbon
  emissions.

26
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Reduction in air pollution from power plants
  (static sources)

The amine plant reduces the Particulate Matter in
the air nitrogen oxides, VOCs and sulfur
dioxides.
27
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Increase in buildings energy efficiency,
  modification of building codes, more emphasis in
  indoor air quality

28
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Decrease in air pollution from mobile sources
  (vehicles) due to changes in fuel composition

29
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Decrease in air pollution from mobile sources
  (vehicles) due to increases in energy efficiency
  and technological change

30
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Increase in micro-generation of energy in urban
  settings with 0 pollutant emissions

31
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Innovation in sustainable energy generation and
  the creation of a smart grid to distribute
  power from decentralized locations (less air and
  water pollution)

32
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health

• Increase in the number of hydropower projects and
  efficient water distribution systems (decrease in
  malnutrition, increase in the availability of
  clean water and increase in some infectious
  deceases like the Chagas disease)

33
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health
Changes in land use practices (reforestation
Environmental Health)
34
Potential impacts of carbon trading in public
health
Regulation of some international air polluters
35
Conclusions

• Global warming has been identified as a problem
  with potential for great consequences
• Cap and trade is a policy that enables the
  carbon trading mechanism used to reduce carbon
  emissions.
• Carbon trading sells or exchanges permits to emit
  carbon dioxide, these funds are then used to
  finance clean sustainable projects that have some
  beneficial effects to public health.

36
Questions??