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  • Perspective
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Effects of the low-carbon energy transition on air pollution and health

Nature Reviews Clean Technology volume 1, pages 432–445 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The transition to a low-carbon energy system could simultaneously mitigate carbon emissions, reduce air pollution and protect human health. Although these potential benefits have been widely acknowledged, major questions remain regarding key factors that determine the impacts of energy strategies on health and health disparities, as well as ways to incorporate health benefits into real-world energy decisions. In this Perspective, we summarize the current understanding and analytical framework related to the pollution and health impacts of the energy transition, discuss the analytical challenges and knowledge gaps in assessing and projecting the magnitude and distribution of the pollution and health impacts, and identify plausible entry points to enhance the real-world relevance of health benefits in decision-making about energy systems. The energy transition will affect pollution and health impacts at the global, national and subnational scales, resulting in complex distributional effects across regions and population groups. Although current analytical frameworks are useful to quantify the general patterns of health benefits, they are often insufficient for characterizing distributional effects, quantifying potential trade-offs, and incorporating considerations of deep and interacting uncertainties. Given the complexity of the actors involved and the policymaking landscape, it will be necessary to make knowledge actionable by, for example, establishing a co-production process between researchers and practitioners.

Key points

  • The transition from a fossil-fuel-heavy to a low-carbon energy system could simultaneously mitigate carbon emissions and reduce the health impacts from air pollution.

  • The assessment of health benefits of energy transitions often relies on an integrated modelling framework that couples energy system, air quality and health modelling.

  • The scientific community currently has a good understanding of the aggregate health impacts of different energy strategies, whereas the distribution of these impacts across regions and populations is more complicated and remains poorly understood.

  • Incorporating health benefits into real-world energy policies will require research efforts to integrate insights from multiple disciplines and a close collaboration between researchers, decision-makers and relevant stakeholders.

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Fig. 1: The effects of the low-carbon energy transition on outdoor air pollution, health and health disparities.
Fig. 2: Historical trends and projected changes in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution-related health impacts.
Fig. 3: Health benefits of clean-energy transitions vary across subnational regions.
Fig. 4: Overview of the integrated modelling approach.
Fig. 5: Clean-energy policies and programmes adopted globally.
Fig. 6: An iterative process for knowledge co-production to integrate health benefits into energy decisions.

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Data availability

All the data used to generate Figs. 2, 3, and 5 are available in the following Zenodo repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15466238.

Code availability

All the codes used to generate Figs. 2, 3 and 5 are available in the following Zenodo repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15466238.

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Acknowledgements

The authors received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF award 2420344 to M.B., N.S., W.P., J.S. and C.C.M. and NSF award 2423254 to W.P., J.S. and C.C.M.) for research activities relevant to this Perspective. W.P., J.S., C.C.M. and H.L. acknowledge additional funding support from Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and the School of Public and International Affairs. G.I. is also affiliated with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which did not provide specific support for this paper. The authors thank X. Huang and H. Yang for sharing data used in Fig. 3. The authors thank K. Keller, V. Srikrishnan and C. Helgeson for their feedback on Fig. 6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public and International Affairs and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Wei Peng, Carla Campos Morales, Jinyu Shiwang & Huilin Luo

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Carla Campos Morales, Jinyu Shiwang & Huilin Luo

  3. Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Gokul Iyer

  4. Department of Geography and the Environment, Department of Philosophy, Population Wellbeing Initiative, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Mark Budolfson

  5. Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Noah Scovronick

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Contributions

W.P., M.B. and N.S. conceptualized the paper. W.P., J.S., C.C.M. and H.L. analysed the data and generated the figures. W.P., J.S. and C.C.M. wrote the first draft. All authors reviewed and revised the paper.

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Nature Reviews Clean Technology thanks Jia Xing, who co-reviewed with Jiaxin Dong; Jon Sampedro, who co-reviewed with Clàudia Rodés-Bachs; and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Climate Pollution Reduction Grants: https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/climate-pollution-reduction-grants

Cross-State Air Pollution: https://www.epa.gov/Cross-State-Air-Pollution

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: https://www.rggi.org

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Peng, W., Morales, C.C., Shiwang, J. et al. Effects of the low-carbon energy transition on air pollution and health. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. 1, 432–445 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00070-0

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