Reducing fossil fuel emissions steadily over coming years will prevent millions of premature deaths and help avoid the worst of climate change without causing the large spike in short-term warming that some studies have predicted, new analysis by researchers at Duke University and the University of Leeds finds.

Junfeng “Jim” Zhang, professor of global and environmental health at Duke University, has received a $2 million grant to lead a four-year study on the effects of early-life and prenatal exposure to air pollution on birth weight and growth. These are two important predictors of childhood obesity.

Algae may hold the key to helping scientists devise a negative-emissions technology that produces electricity and provides protein for millions of people worldwide while simultaneously removing substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere and reducing deforestation.