Burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas, generates electricity and powers our vehicles, but it is also the leading contributor to air pollution and powerful greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollutants and greenhouse gases generated by these activities have adverse impacts on human health and also trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere, leading to climate change.
Our faculty, postdocs, students, and other research collaborators conduct policy-relevant scientific studies and link them with economic analyses to understand environmental benefits and tradeoffs ("co-benefits") of various options. Our goal is to provide policy recommendations to governments that have the dual benefits of improving air quality while mitigating the human causes of climate change. In particular, we focus on opportunities within the energy and agricultural sectors that provide reductions in emissions while simultaneously improving transportation and heating options, public health, and food security. Our research informs policy action in the world’s top four largest emitters of greenhouse gases: China, the United States, the European Union, and India.
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Electrifying sections of the economy and improving energy efficiency while moving away from fossil fuels to renewably-generated electricity brings cascading and mutually-reinforcing benefits, or "co-benefits." These co-benefits include mitigation of air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, improved public health, and increased food security. We quantify and model these co-benefits for power generation, the residential sector, electric vehicles and industry, with specific attention to options and policies in China and India.
Air pollution can be addressed in ways which either reduce or increase emissions of greenhouse gases. We analyze various technological interventions and map their impacts on air quality, public health and the emissions of greenhouse gases so that trade-offs inherent in various options become clear.
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A Princeton study underscores the health benefits of an all-of-society clean energy transition, suggesting that coordinated policy efforts across various sectors and actors could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.
Transitioning to clean energy is not just about reducing…
Prologue
In December 2024, I conducted a series of interviews with over 20 brick kiln owners in Rajasthan and Bihar in India. These conversations sought to understand the realities of an industry critical to construction and deeply entwined with environmental challenges. The kiln owners described the…
High concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in India have severe impacts on public health. While high PM2.5 levels are primarily due to intensive local emissions, they can be further worsened by meteorological patterns known as atmospheric stagnation, which trap pollutants close to the Earth’s surface. Understanding…
Rapid industrialization and population growth has led to significant increases in emissions and air pollution to dangerous levels in India. To address this challenge, the Indian government implemented the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to reduce emissions of fine particulate air pollutants (particulate matter with diameters…
The industrial sector – made up of businesses that support processing raw materials for manufacturing and consumer goods – is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and one that has proven difficult to decarbonize. In China, much of the industrial sector is organized into ‘parks’ that have been zoned as areas for concentrated…
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, contributing about 1 degree Fahrenheit of present-day global warming relative to pre-industrial times. One major source of methane to the atmosphere is the extraction and transport of oil and gas. Countries are obligated to report their greenhouse gas emissions to…
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The decision for the case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency…
As the plan…
A new partnership between Princeton University’s Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) is pairing students and researchers to work on solutions to today…
Geeta Persad completed her PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies from Princeton in 2016. She was selected for an HMEI-STEP Graduate Fellowship, which allowed her to pursue the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy certificate at the School of Public and International Affairs.
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