MIT Study: Pollution Treaty’s Potential Major Economic Upside for U.S.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty adopted in 2013, did not intend to serve as a major economic treaty. Its aim was to reduce mercury pollution around the world. However, according to a recent MIT study, that treaty, and several others, may have a significant positive impact on the U.S. economy.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty adopted in 2013, did not intend to serve as a major economic treaty. Its aim was to reduce mercury pollution around the world. However, according to a recent MIT study, that treaty, and several others, may have a significant positive impact on the U.S. economy.

Mercury pollution constitutes a major ecological concern. Emissions from various sources—in particular, coal-fired power plants—spew into the atmosphere, drift around the globe, and eventually settle into the oceans and other water bodies where they slowly poison the fish. Humans, in turn, eat the contaminated fish, leading to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairments. As a result, the nations of the world have focused on negotiating a string of treaties geared at cutting those emissions and reducing pollution. 

While that is all excellent news for the environment, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that it may actually offer outstanding news for the U.S. economy, as well. Compared with measures enacted domestically, these international treaties will have twice the economic benefit for the United States, according to the study. 

In preparing the report, researchers from MIT calculated the projected economic benefits from the Minamata Convention on Mercury versus the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), a set of rules enacted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed to reduce mercury pollution from coal power plants.

Although both policies would lead to roughly equivalent amounts of pollution reduction, Americans’ consumption of mercury by 2050 should fall significantly under the international treaty (91 percent lower compared to a mere 32 percent under the domestic policy). 

The broad difference in these numbers reflects the source of fish for U.S. consumers. Ninety percent of the fish served to Americans comes from foreign markets. Thus, pollution sources outside of the United States have a greater influence on these fish. Based on these numbers, the researchers then extrapolated the relative health impact of each policy, and translated that into economic benefit. 

Based on those calculations, as reported by Eurasia Review, the MIT researchers estimated that by 2050, Americans would experience a $339 billion lifetime health benefit and a $104 billion direct economic benefit under the international agreement, compared to just $147 billion and $43 billion under MATS. Thus, the global treaty should create more than twice the economic benefit for both citizens and the economy as a whole than a domestic policy.

That makes the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and other treaties like it, some of the most important economic treaties to which the United States is a party, even though that was not the original intent of the agreement.