“Most air pollution comes from energy use and production,” says John Walke, director of the Clean Air Project which is part of the Climate and Clean Energy program at the National Resources Defense Council. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is estimated that each year, air pollution is the major cause of the death of nearly seven million people on Earth. Air pollution has several causes such as:
Burning fossil fuels
Industrial emissions
Wildfires
CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions
According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, it is estimated that deaths due to the devastated air quality will continue to rise till 2100 and the economic value of the health benefits was estimated to be between $50 and $380 for each ton of carbon dioxide emitted.
Ever since the industrial revolution, there was an outbreak of industries in all fields ranging from mechanical production to electrical to technical. All these productions relied mostly on heavy machinery that in fact, combusted energy sources (such as fuel, oil, diesel…) and in a complex series of chemical reactions, released gases. One of those gases is Carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 by itself is not bad because it is a needed chemical in nature. However, CO2 levels in the air have been increasing drastically to the point that they have become one of the major sources in air pollution, according to MDPI.
Carbon Dioxide from electricity production:
According to the World Nuclear Association, almost 40% of the energy-related CO2 emissions are due to burning of the fossil fuels for electricity production. Because a huge part of electricity production depends on burning fuels, there will be a mass of CO2 emitted to the air. This in turn leads to high CO2 emissions, especially from the countries that depend completely on burning fuels to produce electricity. The visuals below demonstrate and prove that the regions that had the highest CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production in 2014 tended to have the highest air pollution rates. The Carbon dioxide emission rates were highest in the middle east, east Africa and east Asia compared to the low numbers of North America and Europe. The same former countries had the highest air pollution rates (PM2.5) compared to the latter. Therefore, we can conclude that the higher the dependency on fuel combustion for energy production, the higher the CO2 emission rates, the higher the air pollution rates. On the long run, this can have devastating effects on the nature, climate and humans.
What can be done?
After governments realized the devastating effects of the gaseous emissions on the air quality and on humans in general, several attempts were done, such as awareness programs among the youth, restrictive laws and advertising. However, these attempts tackled the tip of the iceberg of the problem. A solution is needed to solve the problem deep from within the roots, to prevent it from happening in the first place. Producing energy from renewables could be a potential solution. The most common renewable power technologies are through Solar, wind, biogas, geothermal, low-impact hydroelectricity and biomass. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, generating energy from renewable sources reduces air pollution, diversifies energy supply and creates economic development.
To reduce the gaseous emissions and air pollution, several countries tried to develop their technological and scientific knowledge of renewable energy production as saw a promise in using renewables, that could one day, be substituted for fuel combustion to produce energy. In fact, developed countries such as USA and the EU countries took serious initiatives to use renewable energy production. The below figures show that countries that increased their electrical energy production from renewable sources over the time period of 2005-2014 had the least air pollution rates in 2014. The EU countries and North America had the highest dependency on using renewables to produce electricity compared to the middle east, east Africa and east Asia and the former regions in turn had air pollution rates that are much lower.
Renewable energy production, therefore, is a clean energy source that can reduce Carbon dioxide emissions and in turn lead to a better, sustainable and a healthy planet that has a rich and high air quality.
The Sustainable Development Goal 3 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to “ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”.
However, many low- and middle-income countries are having higher mortality rate for infant and lower life expectancy in general compared to other higher income countries.
Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of one. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.
The first map shows the IMR of most countries around the world. It changes by years. From the map, we can see the global IMR has decreased from 1990 to 2021 and is predicted to continue to decrease in the future However it’s still higher in low-income countries.
Infant Mortality Rate is an important indicator of the overall health of a society. It also reflects the social, economic, and environmental conditions in which children live. There are a number of causes of infant mortality that vary from country to country, including poor sanitation, poor water quality, malnutrition of the mother and infant, and inadequate prenatal and medical care.
Visualizing the data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) throughout different years shows clearly that there is inequality in health, clean resources and vaccination coverage as well.
One of the main reasons for the high IMR is the lack of vaccination, taking Measles as an example, Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every 2–3 years and measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.
More than 140 000 people died from measles in 2018 (over 300 deaths a day) mostly children under the age of 5 years, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.
Due to gaps in vaccination coverage, in high income regions of the world such as Western Europe, measles causes death in about 1 in 5000 cases, but as many as 1 in 100 will die in the poorest regions of the world.
Another important fact to focus on is the Health expenditure per capita which is the amount that each country spends on health, for both individual and collective services.
We notice that the low-income countries have the lowest rate compared the other countries such as US and Finland.
This prevents many women of the low-income countries from getting proper and adequate medical attention due to their inability to afford good care
This is also another reason for the high Infant mortality rate in these countries because they don’t give much importance and budget for the country health system
Recommendation:
There are different causes of infant mortality that vary from country to country, including poor sanitation, poor water quality, malnutrition of the mother and infant, Vaccination and inadequate prenatal and medical care. So, in order to reduce the rate, it’s necessary to enhance the standards of living in these countries on different levels:
Measles vaccination for children, combined with mass immunisation campaigns in countries with high case and death rates, are key public health strategies to reduce IMR
Improve life conditions by providing an access to a cleaner food and beverage.
Increasing the delivery services within health facilities
Health expenditure need be prioritized by laws: Countries that have prioritized policies on health-care expenditure and have high levels of health spending are those that have succeeded in lowering their infant mortality rates
Encourage NGOs and the other organization to create projects in these countries for employability purpose and providing solutions to the people’s needs.
Validation
Monitor the world development indicators (e.g., Infant mortality rate, access to clean food, immunization, GDP,, …) in such countries over the next period and see with how much and how these indicators changed after doing these solutions.
Findings/Recommendation
Reducing mortality rate may lead to Improving labor supply resulting in improved household income and economic well-being of families and communities.
Trying to reduce inequality between high- and low-income countries will empower and promote inclusive social and economic growth
Unavailability of electricity and cooking tools is prominent, especially in African countries. On the community level, this can be responsible for inadequate equipment in health care facilities. On the individual level, this causes hunger and reliance on combustion methods for cooking and heating which increases exposure to unhealthy air substances.
Evidence: infant mortality is the highest in African region while both access to electricity and technological tools for cooking is the lowest in these countries.
Solution:
– On the community level: Projects to electrify health care facilities especially emergency care (refrigerators for storing medicines and plasma, communication systems…).
– Individual level: projects to Increase accessibility to technological cooking tools.
Solution details:
-Projects to electrify health care facilities increase attraction and retention of health care practitioners in the African region, also ensure better provision of health services.
-Providing clean energy decreases reliance on combustion methods for cooking and heating, decreasing indoor air pollution.
-Ensuring provision of cooking tools optimizes cooking time and decreases various coping strategies and these may include the decreasing the frequency cooking of foods that take longer to cook such as beans or encouraging consumption of uncooked or semi cooked foods), decreasing malnutrition.
Validation:
More than 5 lives out of 100 lives are saved through providing better services including electricity and clean fuel for cooking for more than a year, according to Wang and Van der Klauuw, 2003.
Recommendations:
– The focus of energy programs should shift from supplying energy as a commodity to providing energy with a developmental goal, such as clean energy for child health or water and sanitation.
– Focus should be on identifying conditions under which affordable energy services creates gains in combating child mortality.
THE 17 GOALS: Affordable and clean energy in australia:
CO2 emissions is one of the hottest topics nowadays especially in Australia where they are suffering from the high emission of CO2. CO2 leads to many problems in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change.
In the last 30 years the emission of CO2 in Australia has been increasing significantly, that line chart here shows the trend of consecutive increase over the years.
Energy-related CO2 emissions is increasing by years This is abundantly seen when we examine emissions from energy generation in Australia. We can see here that the CO2 emission increase significantly as more electricity is generated where more than 30% increase in the CO2 emission generated from the electricity production.
The coal in Australia plays an important role in it economy and that what made Australia so rich, the high availability of that natural resource.
It’s well known that the coal is used worldwide for electricity production, as Australia is one the richest country in coal resources them energy-related carbon emissions from coal resources have risen to arrive to a maximum of 84% which was primarily due to rising energy consumption in Australia.
The CO2 emission from electricity and heat production followed an incremental trend until 2001 where it started to fluctuate that is caused as we can see to the decrease in the electricity production from coal sources here a new line shows up that stated to going upward but at very shy way that is the electricity production from renewable sources.
the renewable energy consumption in Australia is 10.13% of total final energy consumption at the end of 2019 which is considered very low considering Australia as a developed country only a small portion of that 10.13 is used to produce electricity as we can see in 2014 9.32% is the renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption only 7.5% of that is used to produce electricity.
So, what are the barriers for Australia for not up taking renewable energy?
Information
Some consumers and companies may be unaware that installing solar panels might help them save money and hence fail to analyze the potential. They may also lack a reliable installation and are unsure how to locate an appropriate provider.
The cost of capital
For many individuals, the initial capital expenditure of solar panels is a substantial barrier to realizing the financial benefits of free power.
Priorities
People may be aware that installing solar panels is a good idea, but they may have other priorities that must be addressed first.
