Reducing Emissions From Transportation Would Produce Huge Health Benefits, Study Says

The Transportation, Equity, Climate and Health (TRECH) project at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is a multi-university research initiative tasked with conducting an independent analysis of policy scenarios under consideration by the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) to address carbon pollution from the transportation sector.

The TCI is a collaboration between multiple Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states to cut emissions from the transportation sector (Planetizen has been tracking the genesis of the TCI since 2018). To help decide a memorandum for TCI, "the TRECH Project team has estimated health outcomes for five illustrative TCI policy scenarios representing a range of emissions reduction caps and investment strategies," according to the TRECH website.

Here's a quick sample the key findings from TRECH's research, with a lot more detail, and a few more findings, provided in the source article.

• The estimated health benefits under the five TCI climate mitigation policy scenarios are substantial and are larger than estimated TCI program proceeds, for a subset of benefits examined.
• The TCI policy scenario with the largest estimated health benefits has the most ambitious emissions reduction cap and the largest share of investments dedicated to public transit and active mobility. 
• Under all five policy scenarios, health benefits are estimated to occur in all counties across the region and are concentrated in more populated areas.  

The article also explains and illustrates the five policy scenarios under examination.