MIT Tool for Air Pollution Scenarios (TAPS)

The MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change launches its Tool for Air Pollution Scenarios (TAPS), which can be used to estimate the likely air-quality and health outcomes of a wide range of climate and air-quality policies at the regional, sectoral and fuel-based level.

The related study study’s initial application of TAPS shows that with current air-quality policies and near-term Paris climate pledges alone, short-term pollution reductions give way to long-term increases–given the expected growth of emissions-intensive industrial and agricultural processes in developing regions. More ambitious climate and air-quality policies could be complementary, each reducing different pollutants substantially to give tremendous near- and long-term health benefits worldwide.

TAPS projects air quality and health outcomes based on three integrated components: a recent global inventory of detailed emissions resulting from human activities (e.g. fossil fuel combustion, land-use change, industrial processes); multiple scenarios of emissions-generating human activities between now and the year 2100, produced by the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model; and emissions intensity (emissions per unit of activity) scenarios based on recent data from the Greenhouse Gas – Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model.

The tool can inform decision-makers about a wide range of climate and air-quality policies. Policy scenarios can be applied to specific regions, sectors or fuels to investigate policy combinations at a more granular level, or to target short-term actions with high-impact benefits.

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