Electric car sales move towards cleaner air and longer lives — ScienceDaily

As the microscopic soot emitted from carbon-fueled cars continues to decline significantly, the research quantified the potential of large-scale use of electric passenger vehicles across the US by 2050 on air pollution and the associated economic gains.

“While we enjoy the mobility that passenger cars provide, most of us are unaware of how bad the carbon emissions from tailpipes are and how they affect our health,” said Howard Simpson senior author Oliver Gao. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University’s School of Engineering.

Gao and colleagues analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory, the Community’s Multi-Scale Air Quality modeling system, and a related tool that estimates the economic value of health effects from changes in air quality, specifically ground-level fines. particles (2.5 micrometers and smaller, known as PM2.5.)

According to the paper, with cleaner air, greater Los Angeles will have 1,163 fewer premature deaths per year in 27 years, corresponding to improved economic health benefits of $12.61 billion. Greater New York City may see 576 fewer such deaths per year and could generate $6.24 billion in associated economic gains and health benefits, while Chicago may have 276 fewer deaths and gain about $3 billion in financial well-being.

In California’s San Joaquin Valley, scientists calculate 260 fewer deaths and $2.82 billion in economic benefits annually, while Dallas-Fort Worth top five with 186 fewer deaths and $2 billion in economic and health gains annually. would complete the field. .

Global sales of electric vehicles are increasing steadily, the researchers said. While the market share of electric cars sold worldwide was less than 1% in 2016, this share increased to 2.2% in 2018. Worldwide market share increased to approximately 4.1% in 2020, followed by 6.6% in 2021.

While the market share of electric passenger cars in the USA was 4.5% in 2021, the passenger car market shares at the urban sales level were 22% in San Francisco, 11.9% in Los Angeles, 11.7% in Seattle, according to the newspaper. and 3.4% in New York.

Gao, a faculty member at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, said that although carbon-fueled passenger cars are still ubiquitous, tailpipe emissions are all around us. “It’s not like power plants where the chimneys are usually far away,” he said. “If we completely electrify transportation, we are not only helping to beat global climate change, but also helping to improve air quality regionally.”

Shuai Pan, lead author of the paper, who is now a former Cornell postdoctoral researcher at Nanjing University, said that while the benefits of adopting electric vehicles on air quality and public health are quite clear, it is also important to speed up the implementation of this mitigation strategy. Information Science and Technology (NUIST), China.

“In addition to sound policies at the national level,” he said, “successful implementation of zero-emission vehicle targets requires commitments and action at the regional level.”

Electric transport has extensive advantages. “We all want to win this battle against climate change and electrify transportation,” said Gao. “Hopefully this research can help local decision makers drive real action and policies that improve the weather and reap health rewards for residents in many ways.”

In addition to Pan and Gao, co-authors of “Public Health Impacts of Large-Scale Use of Electric Passenger Vehicles in 30 US Metropolitan Areas”, NUIST’s Wendi Yu; Lewis M. Fulton, University of California, Davis; Jia Jung, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and Yunsoo Choi, University of Houston.

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materials provided by Cornell University. Originally written by Blaine Friedlander, courtesy of the Cornell Chronicle. Note: Content can be edited for style and length.