Public health impacts of city policies to reduce climate change: findings from the URGENCHE EU-China project

Sabel, Clive E.; Hiscock, Rosemary; Asikainen, Arja; Bi, Jun; Depledge, Mike; van den Elshout, Sef; Friedrich, Rainer; Huang, Ganlin; Hurley, Fintan; Jantunen, Matti; Karakitsios, Spyros P.; Keuken, Menno; Kingham, Simon; Kontoroupis, Periklis; Kuenzli, Nino; Liu, Miaomiao; Martuzzi, Marco; Morton, Katie; Mudu, Pierpaolo; Niittynen, Marjo; Perez, Laura; Sarigiannis, Denis; Stahl-Timmins, Will; Tobollik, Myriam; Tuomisto, Jouni; Willers, Saskia

doi:10.1186/s12940-016-0097-0

Environmental Health

Table 1 Which GHG reduction policies do reduce CO₂ and have co-benefits for health?

From: Public health impacts of city policies to reduce climate change: findings from the URGENCHE EU-China project

Policy	CO₂	Air pollution	Health	Wellbeing	Financial wellbeing	Cities (in brackets if policy not included in full scenario)
ENERGY
Domestic
In-home biomass heating	++	--	--	-- (indoor air)	--	Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Kuopio, Basel
Local fuel mix:oil/wood to gas/electric			++			Thessaloniki
Solar/wind	++	+	+			(Kuopio)
Waste heat from industry		+	+			(Rotterdam)
Power generation
Local fuel mix: oil/wood to gas/electric			++			Thessaloniki
Local power plant: peat/oil to wood	++	+	+			Kuopio
Geothermal	Less than above					(Kuopio)
Improve translational efficiencies	++					(Suzhou)
Industry
Reduce energy intense industry	Only if industry not moved elsewhere			+ (job satisfaction)	--	(Suzhou)
Cleaner technology		++				Rotterdam, Suzhou, Xi’an, Basel
Carbon capture and storage					--	(Rotterdam)
BUILDINGS
Building renovation to improve energy efficiency	Sometimes outpaced by growth of new buildings	Depends on ventilation, second hand smoke (SHS), domestic heating source	Depends on ventilation, SHS, domestic heating source	Warmth helpful but depends on ventilation	++	Kuopio, Basel, Thessaloniki (Rotterdam)
Building isolation		+				(Rotterdam)
Discourage air conditioning				-		(Suzhou)
Increase access to greenspace				+=		(Kuopio) (Suzhou)
TRANSPORT
Promote cars with lower emissions
Increase electric cars	Depends on source of electricity	=++	++	++ noise	++	Rotterdam, Suzhou, Xi’an, Basel, Thessaloniki (Kuopio)
Promote diesel		++ (if emissions controlled)	++			Thessaloniki
Car emissions change to Euro 6	++ but does not reduce overall emissions due to car fleet growth	++	++			Rotterdam, Suzhou, Xi’an, Basel,
Biofuels	++ but emissions from growth/transport not calculated					Kuopio
Encourage alternative transport models
Light rail more frequent throughout the day	+	+				Stuttgart
New metro	++			+noise		Thessaloniki
Improved cycling network	+	+	+	+health		Stuttgart, Basel (Rotterdam)(Suzhou)
Discourage car use
Congestion charge	++	+				Stuttgart
Parking management	++	+		=		Stuttgart (Kuopio)
Traffic reduction -general	++	+	=+	=+		Rotterdam, Suzhou, Xi’an, Basel, Stuttgart

++ positive impact, + minor possible positive impact, = no impact, -minor possible negative impact, -- positive impact

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ISSN: 1476-069X

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