Political economy of the environment

It was recently the 70th anniversary of the UK Clean Air Act - widely seen as leading the way globally in clean air legislation and more importantly leading to countless deaths avoided. It came after the major shock of the great smog of London in 1952. This article gives a great write up of how such laws get passed and the countervailing forces at play.

We are still waiting for the Clean Air (Human Rights) Act to progress further through Parliament alongside various other parliamentary and government processes. The topic was up for a Westminster Hall debate a couple of weeks ago. But as UK-based readers will know, politics is hardly predictable at present…

So it’s great to see that the Confederation of British Industry (CBI, commissioned by Clean Air Fund) has released a report about the economic impact of air pollution in the UK - and the gains that could be achieved if the UK meets the ‘balanced pathway’ in the world of net zero climate change planning. This is important, not just to make the link to climate change goals, but to draw out economic impact - money talks after all! We haven’t written much about this - we covered economic incentives a bit last year. Perhaps this is a reflection of how under-studied the topic is.

Disproportionate gains

Anyway, the key stats from the CBI report are another set of fairly bewildering numbers if the balanced pathway is met - by 2050, 264,000 deaths avoided, 2.8 million life years gained, 497,000 hospital admissions prevented, £7.7bn productivity gains. It also has the interesting finding of a disproportionate benefit to Londoners (17% of benefit compared to 13% of population). We checked in with the author about how the balanced pathway links to the usual goalpost of achieving World Health Organisation guidelines, and over what period - not directly comparable but both would involve a similar set of changes to our economy.

Many voices, including Asthma + Lung UK and the Ella Roberta Foundation continue the quest to achieve World Health Organisation guidelines and to undertake a public health campaign around air quality. Not everything runs smoothly though, with the Dieselgate trial not achieving all the goals that Mums for Lungs had set out to achieve. Mums for Lungs do incredible work, from idling campaigns and school streets support to raising awareness about wood burning and we wish them the best and they consider next steps.

Sometimes it can feel hard to know how to act, but there are always opportunities to contribute. If you are 65 or over, you can take part in this research study into how people manage temperature and air pollution in homes. It’s being run by University of Leeds and overseen by friend of this blog, Dr Douglas Booker. And one reader has told us they are already fully up and running with the study!