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Pathways to an Equitable and Just Energy Transition Principles, Best Practices, and Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023) / Chapter Skim
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1 Public Health, Safety, and Community Resilience
Pages 4-9

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From page 4...
... Speakers offered opening remarks before engaging in a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges and opportunities involved in incorporating public health perspectives in decarbonization efforts, and noted the following: • Studies have demonstrated that it is possible for decarboniza tion measures to simultaneously reduce emissions, improve resil ience, improve public health, and reduce environmental justice disparities. • Achieving a just transformation of communities, people, work, industry, and government requires an emphasis on equitable benefits for workers and for communities who bear the greatest climate burdens.
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From page 5...
... For the study, researchers evaluated the technical feasibility of various approaches as well as their implications for public health and environmental justice. Despite significant challenges, including the geographic constraints imposed by the city's position between mountains and ocean and its high current pollution levels, the study identified pathways that could result in significant gains for air quality through the electrification of the power sector and its loads from light-duty vehicles, buses, residential and commercial buildings, and ports, among other measures.
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From page 6...
... Finally, he suggested focusing on scenarios that do not involve a national carbon price, which he asserted is unlikely to be adopted. DISCUSSION Building on the speakers' comments, Nancy Krieger, Harvard University, served as discussant for a panel discussion examining approaches to better understand the potential health benefits and harms of the coming energy transition.
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From page 7...
... She added that those analyses should emphasize benefits and risks to workers and communities whose health and economic well-being have often been ignored by the fossil fuel industry. Carlos Martín, Brookings Institution and Harvard University, asked how to balance the tension between the need to move quickly to mitigate future climate effects and rectify past injustices, and the time it takes to conduct responsible long-term assessment, modeling, and public engagement.
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From page 8...
... Rudolph stressed that climate change is a health emergency and that community health must be considered as an integral part of the solution; including health benefit analyses in decarbonization planning is critical to identifying strategies that can simultaneously reduce emissions, improve health, and advance environmental justice. On the flip side, failing to adequately account for health in policymaking could deprioritize solutions with health co-benefits, leading to missed opportunities, and even bring unforeseen health risks, especially to communities that already bear significant environmental and health burdens from climate change.
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From page 9...
... Rudolph agreed and suggested that, with funding, the public health community could create a well-resourced media campaign that explicitly calls out the health risks of fossil fuels and the disinformation campaigns of the fossil fuel industry, akin to the model of anti-tobacco public health campaigns, and reframes the climate debate away from the idea that addressing environmental problems must come at the expense of jobs. Given that the United States is such a heterogenous country with regard to geography, resources, and community composition, Clark Miller, Arizona State University, asked panelists to comment on which modeling and quantitative approaches to risk and benefits analyses might be most effective and accurate.
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Key Terms

  • health benefits
  • energy transition
  • health risks
  • energy transitions
  • fossil fuel

  • linda rudolph
  • community health
  • health benefit
  • incorporating health
  • health institute

  • potential health
  • renewable energy
  • house environmental
  • justice communities
  • justice advisory

  • energy laboratory
  • justice impacts
  • national renewable
  • future generations
  • benefit analyses

  • fuel industry
  • accrued health
  • cumulative health
  • health improvements
  • comprehensive health

  • health emergency
  • health burdens
  • health campaigns
  • improve health
  • beneficial health


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