Sir, – The Asthma Society's concerns over Ireland's air quality standards and monitoring are well-founded. ("Air monitoring is lacking, says asthma group", November 24th).
They are also inextricably linked to global warming.
Clean air represents what is known as a “co-benefit” of addressing global warming. Co-benefits, as the name implies, are ancillary benefits that accrue from climate change mitigation measures, such as switching from polluting fuels like coal and peat to clean renewables or improving the thermal efficiency of houses.
For a long time health issues were not even a part of climate change discussions. A growing awareness and body of research led to the Lima Decision at last year’s 20th COP that requires countries to consider health issues in their formal climate change policy planning.
Co-benefits can be as simple as those that arise from successful policies promoting active transport such as cycling and walking. Motivated by a national policy to reduce emissions from transport, they also give improved overall health status and consequent savings to the public health service.
A UK study has shown that if energy inefficient housing were sufficiently improved and the room temperatures lowered by 1 degree, more than 5,000 premature deaths would be saved in the first year of implementation through the reduction of emissions.
The savings to public health services must be weighed against the cost of abatement measures, such as the closure or conversion of Moneypoint coal-powered plant, the enforcement of an all-Ireland smoky coal ban, and the ending of the extraction of peat.
Action against climate change offers great opportunities to improve public health and the quality of our lives.
– Yours, etc,
TONY LOWES
Friends of the Irish
Environment,
Eyeries,
Co Cork.