When the COVID-19 pandemic forced some of the nation’s biggest cities to lock down earlier this year, an unforeseen upside was much cleaner air.
As they now strive to regain their economic footing, those metro areas should work to lock in that blue-sky boon by phasing out fossil fuel use in buildings in favor of electrification, embarking on tree planting and other “urban greening” strategies, and seeking to discourage reliance on cars, the Rocky Mountain Institute said in a report released today. The Colorado-based research and advocacy organization also urges cities to prod utilities to end reliance on coal-fired power generation that can spew emissions hundreds of miles downwind.
Besides improving long-term air quality, that four-pronged approach would buffer the recession’s impact by putting people back to work and promote “an equitable recovery” that channels health and economic gains to low-income and minority communities, the authors argue.
Despite progress, air pollution still kills more people than car crashes and homicides combined, Rushad Nanavatty, a report co-author and senior principal at the institute, said in a statement. “By taking a whole-systems approach to improving air quality, cities can make real progress on addressing multiple human and environmental crises at the same time.”
