Impact of net zero policy scenarios on air pollution inequalities in England and Wales.

Air pollution Climate change Exposure inequality Geodemographics Socio-economic status

Journal

Environment international
ISSN: 1873-6750
Titre abrégé: Environ Int
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 7807270

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
15 Oct 2024
Historique:
received: 17 05 2024
revised: 06 09 2024
accepted: 08 10 2024
medline: 20 10 2024
pubmed: 20 10 2024
entrez: 19 10 2024
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

The UK is committed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The suite of policies needed to reach net zero will lead to improvements in air quality and, consequently, could lessen air pollution inequalities. We assessed air pollution inequalities across different sociodemographic groups in England and Wales and explored how these might be differentially impacted by future air pollution projections in 2030 and 2040 under net zero policies. We employed a geodemographic classification approach to categorise neighbourhoods into five distinct clusters based on 2021 UK Census sociodemographic variables. We modelled fine particulate matter (PM The Urban Central Professionals group experienced 14 µg/m Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted policies and innovations in reducing both air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and in bridging the environmental inequality gap. Our findings are essential to develop targeted communication campaigns to secure acceptance and willingness across the sociodemographic spectrum to support the significant behavioural changes needed to achieve net zero, by highlighting the wider co-benefits to the environment and health of such policies.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
The UK is committed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The suite of policies needed to reach net zero will lead to improvements in air quality and, consequently, could lessen air pollution inequalities. We assessed air pollution inequalities across different sociodemographic groups in England and Wales and explored how these might be differentially impacted by future air pollution projections in 2030 and 2040 under net zero policies.
METHODS METHODS
We employed a geodemographic classification approach to categorise neighbourhoods into five distinct clusters based on 2021 UK Census sociodemographic variables. We modelled fine particulate matter (PM
RESULTS RESULTS
The Urban Central Professionals group experienced 14 µg/m
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted policies and innovations in reducing both air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and in bridging the environmental inequality gap. Our findings are essential to develop targeted communication campaigns to secure acceptance and willingness across the sociodemographic spectrum to support the significant behavioural changes needed to achieve net zero, by highlighting the wider co-benefits to the environment and health of such policies.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109065 PMID: 39426034
pubmed: 39426034
pii: S0160-4120(24)00651-2
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109065
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

109065

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: [Co-authors Heather Walton and Mike Holland declare membership of the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants reporting to the UK Department for Health and Social Care. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper].

Auteurs

Yunzhe Liu (Y)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

David Dajnak (D)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Nosha Assareh (N)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Andrew Beddows (A)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Gregor Stewart (G)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Mike Holland (M)

Ecometrics Research and Consulting, Reading, UK.

Dimitris Evangelopoulos (D)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Dylan Wood (D)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Tuan Vu (T)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Heather Walton (H)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, Imperial College London, UK.

Christian Brand (C)

Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Sean Beevers (S)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, Imperial College London, UK.

Daniela Fecht (D)

MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK. Electronic address: d.fecht@imperial.ac.uk.

Classifications MeSH