Researchers from Harvard University have produced analysis suggesting that the pollution from Victoria’s brown coal power stations are imposing annual health costs of $831 million, on top of significant levels of greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
The report by Jordan Ward and Mick Power of the Kennedy School of Government attributes health costs on the basis of local air pollutants emitted by the power stations, specifically SO2, NOx, and small particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and a methodology they claim is based on work from the US National Academy of Sciences. Climate change costs are based upon the values for the social damage caused by CO2 estimated by the US Government for use in their cost benefit analyses.