
In an economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 health crisis, recovery investments that support growth while also improving human health, and environmental outcomes are essential for fostering long-term resilience in line with the objective of building back better.
This report analyses the comparative environmental and health benefits offered by five green recovery projects - energy efficiency retrofits for residential buildings, energy efficiency retrofits for commercial buildings, installing solar or wind generation capacity, getting zero-emissions public transit vehicles on the road, and getting zero-emissions personal vehicles on the road – in three Canadian cities: Calgary, Québec City, and Waterloo-Kitchener.
This comparative assessment focusses on some of the benefits, i.e. the health benefits arising from improvements in air quality from reductions in two pollutants (particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), and the value gained from reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, from spending a $100 million sum on five green recovery projects in each city.
The results of the partial cost-benefit screening-level analysis are as follows:
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