US President Barack Obama stated that his government's curbs on carbon emissions to combat climate change will also help to address the increasing threat to people's health in the country.
Obama discussed the matter on Satuday when he visited Children's National Medical Center in Washington, where kids are treated for asthma and other breathing-related problems.
The President said the government-laid guidelines to power plants and other industries will cut down the carbon pollution, smog and soot which threaten the health of the most vulnerable Americans, including children and the elderly.
Obama pointed out that the US Environmental Protection Agency is set to limit carbon emissions from the country's power plants. He said that the cost of climate change can be measured in lost lives and livelihoods, lost homes and businesses, and higher prices for food, insurance and rebuilding.
And for the sake of all kids in the US, the government has to do more to reduce the carbon pollution, he added.
Obama asserted that the government cuts carbon pollution by building a clean energy economy - using more clean energy, less dirty energy, and wasting less energy throughout the economy.
"One of the best things we can do for our economy, our health, and our environment is to lead the world in producing cleaner, safer energy - and we're already generating more clean energy than ever before," he said.
Obama explained how America is increasing the production of renewable energy and using clean energies like gas for transportation.
The US President stressed such efforts have also created jobs, grown American economy and helped make the country more energy independent than it has been in decades - all while holding the carbon emissions.
Obama also said that about 40 percent of America's carbon pollution comes from power plants. To cut down the power plants' pollution levels, his government has proposed the guidelines.
"In just the first years that these standards go into effect, up to 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks will be avoided - and those numbers will go up from there," Obama said confidently.
These policy standards were created in an open and transparent way, with inputs from the business community. While forming the policy, states and local governments were also weighed in, too. In fact, nearly a dozen states are already implementing their own market-based programs to reduce carbon pollution, the President stated.
