Quantification of the global and regional impacts of gas flaring on human health via spatial differentiation

Globally, gas flaring caused 350 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2018. In addition to climate change, this burning practice also has other negative consequences for humans (e.g., respiratory problems) and the environment. The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of flaring on human health (at the global and country level) via the calculation of the number of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) caused by the combustion of associated gas. For this quantification, gas flaring emissions were linked with midpoint indicators (e.g., climate change) in life cycle assessment (LCA) for all selected countries. Regionalised characterisation factors (CFs) were applied in the impact assessment to allow for spatial differentiation. The global impact on human health caused by flaring was obtained by taking the sum for all countries. The results show that these flaring emissions globally cause 4.83 × 105 DALYs or 6.19 × 10−5 DALYs/person on an annual basis. This amounts to 0.12% of the total DALYs related to air pollution (from PM2.5) caused by all polluting sectors and 6.51% of the total DALYs related to climate change. To quantify these impacts, this study uses a country perspective rather than considering local characteristics. Thus, if more precise information at a more local level (e.g., city level) is sought, additional factors (e.g., meteorological conditions) should be taken into account. Finally, future research should also focus on the benefits of gas flaring reduction techniques to enable the selection of the most promising technologies for the elimination of gas flaring and its effects