Tracing the $15 billion health bill of air pollution from select private equity-backed fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States
Despite controlling vast networks of energy assets deeply embedded in our global economies, private equity firms remain largely unregulated, evading the financial disclosures that would expose the true extent of their impacts.
In a new report, Private Equity, Public Harm, PECR expands on the findings of the 2024 Private Equity Climate Risks Scorecard and Report to examine the impacts of non-greenhouse gas pollutants (non-GHGs) from fossil fuel infrastructure located in the continental United States and backed by private equity investments.
The non-GHGs included in the analysis are sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). These pollutants are known to cause or worsen cardiovascular and respiratory conditions such as asthma, lung cancer, heart attacks, and strokes, as well as neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.1
The impact of these pollutants across the United States were analyzed using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) CO-Benefits Risk Assessment Health Impacts Screening and Mapping Tool (COBRA).2 Output data from this model was utilized to examine human health impacts nationwide, at the firm-level, and within two case study regions. In addition to estimating the number of instances of health issues in a given area, the COBRA model also estimates the economic costs of these harms on an annual basis.
Staggeringly, the total health bill from the selected private equity-backed fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States is estimated to range between $11.3–$15.1 billion per year.
Figure 1
In more concrete terms, the air pollution from these private equity-backed facilities are responsible for ~1,500 emergency room visits and ~1,000 premature deaths every year.3 Moreover, U.S. communities lose over 27,000 work days and over a quarter of a million school days due to health issues caused by this air pollution per year. The latter figure is roughly equivalent to the entire Los Angeles Unified School District—the second largest in the country—being shut down for a day due to poor air quality. Other respiratory issues such as asthma and hay fever (a general allergic reaction to allergens) are also very common as a result of these air pollution emissions.4
Figure 2
Behind all of these national impact numbers are the private equity firms in question and the fossil fuel assets in which they are invested.5 Health impacts and monetary estimates have been disaggregated to the private equity firm level in this report. Notably, multiple firms cause more than US$1 billion in health impacts per year.
Figure 3
Private equity managers must be transparent about investments in fossil fuels and must also account for the impacts and risks their fossil fuel portfolios have on the environment and local communities. The industry must act to remediate the harms, particularly in communities of color where climate impacts and toxic pollution are the most acute. Private equity managers must simultaneously transition to investing in a clean energy economy that will power our society without these unacceptable health impacts. Given the trillion-plus dollars private equity firms have invested in fossil fuels and the need for immediate environmental action, this report recommends a set of standards based on the climate demands in the private equity scorecard.
Standards:
- DISCLOSE FOSSIL FUEL EXPOSURE, GHG and NON-GHG EMISSIONS, AND IMPACTS • Disclose all fossil fuel infrastructure and financial estimates and assumptions regarding facility impairment • Disclose all direct and indirect emissions and health-related community impacts.
- IMMEDIATELY CEASE INVESTMENTS IN FOSSIL FUEL EXPANSION • Achieve a fossil-free energy portfolio by 2030 • Retire fossil fuel energy facilities by 2030. • Cease gas flaring and venting by 2025.
- REPORT A PORTFOLIO-WIDE ENERGY TRANSITION PLAN • Disclose a portfolio-wide transition plan • Disclose role of voluntary carbon offsets immediately and cease their utilization by 2025 • Disclose use of carbon removal, carbon utilization and storage, and related technologies.
- INTEGRATE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE • Establish robust due diligence, verification, and grievance redress mechanisms to ensure that human health, human rights, and land rights are respected • Require all portfolio companies to adopt no deforestation, no peat, and no exploitation (NDPE) policies • Develop a just transition program with impacted communities and workers.
- PROVIDE TRANSPARENCY ON POLITICAL SPENDING AND ENERGY LOBBYING • Disclose political spending and climate lobbying at asset manager, portfolio company, and trade association level • Provide transparency on alignment with global standards on responsible corporate climate lobbying.
About the Private Equity Climate Risks (PECR) project
This study is part of the Private Equity Climate Risks (PECR) project, a multi-organization initiative investigating private equity’s role in the climate crisis. Through its Private Equity Tracker, Global Energy Monitor collaborates with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) to document the environmental and social toll of private equity-backed energy assets — and the gap between these firms’ ESG claims and their actual investment practices.
Media Contact
Alex Hurley, Project Manager Private Equity Tracker
Global Energy Monitor
