<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/19/clean-up-indian-coal-fired-power-plants-could-saved-lives>
"Research has estimated the health impacts from the coal-fired power plants
that operate across India.
Six hundred coal power plants generate more than 70% of India’s electricity.
Despite regulations passed in 2015, fewer than 5% of these plants operate with
modern systems to clean up air pollutants from their chimneys. In China, 95% of
coal-fired power plants were fitted with clean-up technologies by 2013.
Dr Asif Qureshi of the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad and his team
used a computer simulation of air pollution across India to test what would
have happened if new technologies had been fitted to the power plants. They
looked at two different technologies and found that controlling sulphur was the
most effective single step, but applying both technologies together yielded the
greatest gains.
As many as 720,000 early deaths could have been avoided over a 10-year period
if the power plants had been cleaned up in 2010. Particle pollution would have
reduced by up to 11% across the country. The research team found that people
living around power plants would have experienced the greatest benefit, up to a
28% reduction in particle pollution, leading to about a 17% reduction in early
deaths.
Installation and running costs are often cited as a reason to delay. Qureshi’s
team therefore compared the cost of clean-up systems to the cost of the lives
lost.
The capital and operating cost were estimated to be between $19.5bn and $32.8bn
(about £16-26bn) a year. The benefits depend on the monetary value assigned to
a human life. Using a range of international values the researchers calculated
a benefit of between $18bn and as much as $604bn US dollars (about £14-481bn).
Qureshi said: “Even at this screening level there appears to be a strong case
to implement clean-up technologies. If the industry or the policymakers could
buy into this way of looking at the problem, maybe pollution control can be
accelerated.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
