A new study commissioned by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) reveals that making particle filters mandatory in Europe’s dirtiest home heating method – wood burning – would deliver significant public health benefits at a fraction of household incomes.
High fossil fuel prices have pushed many low-income and rural households back to wood as their primary heating source. Sales of wood-burning heating systems, therefore, have been booming across the EU and the UK.
Number one source of particle pollution
Residential wood burning is the largest source of fine particle pollution (PM2.5) from energy use in the European Union. Despite increasing awareness of the devastating health and environmental consequences, current EU regulations fall short of tackling emissions at the source.
Despite being the number one source of harmful fine particle pollution from energy in the EU, most modern wood stoves are still sold without filters. This surge in stove sales risks exacerbating air pollution and undermining climate goals.
‘A no-brainer’
However, one simple, cost-effective solution could prevent this: requiring filters in all newly sold stoves. Mandating the use of precipitators in new wood stoves would bring substantial societal benefits, with the health and environmental gains far outweighing the costs.
David Sabbadin, Deputy Policy Manager for Climate and Energy at EEB: “It is affordable and feasible, and for vulnerable households, governments can easily step in with targeted subsidies. […] This should be a no-brainer.”
Denmark and Slovakia
Using Denmark and Slovakia as case studies, the new research indicates that filters cut harmful particle emissions by 70%. They reduce the health burden of wood stoves by hundreds of euros per year per household. For most households, filters would cost less than 0.5% of annual income, and even less when offset by savings from switching off gas or oil.
Nonetheless, even with precipitators, wood stoves still generate around 70 times higher health-related costs than heat pumps, even when the electricity used by the latter is coal-based. From a societal perspective, energy renovation and the deployment of heat pumps should, therefore, take clear precedence over residential wood burning.
Denmark and Slovakia were selected because they are of similar size but differ significantly in per capita income, allowing an examination of the impacts for both wealthier and less wealthy EU member states.
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