Jonathan Turley — Study: Pollution Kills More People Than War, Smoking, Hunger, and Other Causes of Death

We have previously discussed how environmental dangers remain something of an abstraction for most people who fail to recognize that changes in air or water pollution standards results in high and quantifiable rises in death rates. Even changes in areas like shipping fuels can translate to thousands of deaths. However, since these deaths are not immediate and borne privately, the true costs of pollution are often dismissed. I have been highly critical of the environmental record of the Trump Administration for this reason in rolling back on protections in a variety of areas as well as appointing regulators with anti-environmental record.

Now a new major study has found that environmental pollution kills more people every year that all of the wars. It exceeds the death tolls for smoking, hunger or natural disasters combined. It kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Yet, unlike these causes of death, pollution remains a policy concern that is often pushed to the side for more immediate goals like job creation. This is not to say that environmental protection would trump all other concerns but rather the real costs of such pollution are rarely discussed in real terms of premature deaths by politicians.

The study in the respected Lancet medical journal found that one out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 was caused by toxic exposure. That amounts to 9 million people who died prematurely due to pollution. The study also found that the cost of the resulting illnesses and deaths amounted to some $4.6 trillion in annual losses.

Worse yet, the 9 million deaths from pollution appears a highly conservative estimate since it relied on only limited data on specific measurable cases of deaths and illnesses. The actual number is likely much higher. Moreover, only half of the 5000 news chemicals introduced since 1950 have actually been fully tested for their toxicity....

Jonathan Turley
Study: Pollution Kills More People Than War, Smoking, Hunger, and Other Causes of DeathJonathan Turley | Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University

Xinhua — China home to world's biggest green bond market

With its green bonds issued in the first half of the year reaching 75 billion yuan, or 33 percent of the world's total issued in this period, China has quickly become the world's largest green bond market, a central bank economist said on Friday.

The country's demand for green bonds is estimated to be 20 times as much as the current financing, said Ma Jun, chief economist of the research bureau of China's central bank, at a green finance forum on how to use financial instruments to boost development of low-energy and low-pollution industries and tackle climate change.

China has taken a series of measures after promising to hit peak CO2 emissions by around 2030 and slash CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent from the 2005 level at the Paris Conference on climate change last November.

The two milestone documents, the Green Project Catalog issued by the Green Finance Committee of the China Society of Finance and Banking and the Guideline on Green Bond Issuance by the National Development and Reform Commission in December, have given a solid boost to the country's green bond market.

"In more than half a year, China not only leads in market share, but also in the analytic technique for environmental risks," said Ma.

This March, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China launched a new methodology to help banks understand how stricter environmental protection standards change customers' liability as well as banks' reputations in the eyes of shareholders and depositors.

"The methodology has won a lot of praise from overseas bankers and will influence the global green bond practice as the Chinese market is growing so rapidly," said Ma.

He also noted that China has put green finance high on the agenda for its G20 presidency and created a study group. It will also make recommendations on green finance at the upcoming G20 meeting in Hangzhou this September.

In order for green bonds to play a bigger role in climate change solutions and economic upgrading, the economist said that discount guaranteed loans should be used as an incentive to expand market share, and standards for green bonds must be clarified.

A third-party credit rating agency is inevitable to reduce financing costs of the green bond market, while listed companies must be required to disclose their environmental information, he said.

Good on them.

China.org.cn
China home to world's biggest green bond market

Xinhua

Ari Phillips — Ford Debuts New Car That Saves Each Driver Four Metric Tons Of Greenhouse Gas Per Year

That's a state of the art solar panel on the roof.

Climate Progress
Ford Debuts New Car That Saves Each Driver Four Metric Tons Of Greenhouse Gas Per Year

Ari Phillips