Air pollution and CO2 from daily mobility: Who emits and Why? Evidence from Paris

Marion Leroutier (1) , Philippe Quirion (2)

1 SSE - Stockholm School of Economics
2 CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement

Objectives: Energy transition scenarios are prospective outlooks describing combinations of changes in socio-economic systems that are compatible with climate targets. These changes could have important health co-benefits. We aimed to quantify the health benefits of physical activity caused by active transportation on all-cause mortality in the French negaWatt scenario over the 2021–2050 period. Methods; Relying on a health impact assessment framework, we quantified the health benefits of increased walking, cycling and E-biking projected in the negaWatt scenario. The negaWatt scenario assumes increases of walking and cycling volumes of +11% and +612%, respectively, over the study period. Results: As compared to a scenario with no increase in volume of active travel, we quantified that the negaWatt scenario would prevent 9,797 annual premature deaths in 2045 and translate into a 3-month increase in life expectancy in the general population. These health gains would generate €34 billion of economic benefits from 2045 onwards. Conclusion: Increased physical activity implied in the negaWatt transition scenario would generate substantial public health benefits, which are comparable to the gain expected by large scale health prevention interventions.

Mots clés: Transport externalities; Environmental inequalities; LMDI

Domaines: Environnement et Société; Economies et finances

Marion Leroutier, Philippe Quirion. Air pollution and CO2 from daily mobility: Who emits and Why? Evidence from Paris. Energy Economics, 2022, 109, pp.105941. ⟨10.1016/j.eneco.2022.105941⟩. ⟨hal-03921086⟩