The newly released European State of the Climate 2024 annual report (ESOTC), co-published by the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), confirms what public health experts have long warned about: the health costs of climate change in Europe are rising fast, and so is the human toll.
Brussels – Health groups have written to Member State environment and health ministers today urging them to support BREF standards for large combustion plants (LCP BREF). (1) Prior to the Council vote on 28 April, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and others are calling on ministers to protect human health and improve air quality. The letter says that the health-related costs of air pollution in the EU are estimated at between 390 and 940 billion Euros per year. (2) LCP BREF will be the major instrument for reducing pollutant emissions of around 3,000 large combustion plants in the European Union for years to come. Compared to existing limit values for Europe’s 257 coal-fired power stations, implementation of the new LCP BREF would reduce the health burden by up to 75%. The costs for retrofit measures would be outweighed many times by the benefits to human health, the letter says. (3) “The health damage resulting from coal fumes today is neither necessary nor inevitable because the means to reduce this pollution already exist. The new regulation will finally require polluters to bear some of the costs that are currently forced on society in the form of illness, health services and lifetime lost,”, says Julia Gogolewska, Senior Health and Energy Policer Officer from the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). Other signatories to the letter are European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), European Lung Foundation (ELF) and European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA).
