Coal’s Last Breath: Examining Health Impacts in England’s Coal’s Phase Out

Abstract

This study used a natural experiment to determine how a nation-wide coal phase out strategy affects air pollution and in-turn health outcomes (physical and mental health) in England. The introduction of the Carbon Tax policy in the United Kingdom in 2013, precipitated the closure of multiple coal plants, highlighting the imperative for further investigation into its implications. Using a Staggered Difference-in-Difference estimator, we show coal plant closures improve air quality and related health outcomes. In particular, we find coal plant closures reduces hospital admissions among respiratory patients, and asthma (among adults). Additionally, they reduce mortality among the most deprived under the age of 75 years, but not among the non-deprived population. Finally, we also document improvements on mortality for mental and behavioral diseases. This results, we show, are not driven by endogenous migration flows. These findings contribute to the literature on the health effects of pollution by focusing on the effects of removing, rather than adding, pollution sources that in this case result from more stringent climate policies.