Abstract
OPS 02: Environmental epidemiology and policy, Room 315, Floor 3, August 28, 2019, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Background/aim: In response to severe and persistent haze, the Chinese Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan includes regional coal consumption caps in key northern regions. In Beijing, the municipal government has designated coal restricted areas throughout the province, offering subsidies to nighttime electricity rates and for electric-powered heat pumps to replace traditional coal heating stoves. We compared treated and untreated villages in the Beijing province to investigate three dimensions of outcomes of the policy: fuel use and economic behavior, subjective well-being, and indoor environmental conditions. Methods: Our study design consists of 302 door-to-door surveys in six villages, with one treated and one un-treated village in each of three districts chosen to represent different socioeconomic and geographic conditions present in peri-urban Beijing. We measured indoor temperature and fine particulate matter levels (PM2.5) in a subset of homes in each village. Results: Coal use was absent in treated villages in two districts, and significantly lower in the treated as compared with the untreated village in one district where adherence to the coal ban was not complete. In homes in the two coal-restricted villages adhering to the coal ban, average (standard deviation) outdoor-subtracted, indoor 24-h PM2.5 concentrations (0.145 (0.218) mg-m-3) were lower compared with untreated homes (0.275 (0.244) mg-m-3). In the middle-income district, where the transition to electric heating was complete, satisfaction with life (SWL) and satisfaction with living conditions (SWC) were higher (+0.6 and +1.0 on the 0–10 scale) in the treated village than the untreated. By contrast, in the least affluent district, both satisfaction measures were lower (-1.0, -1.5) in the treated village compared with the untreated. Conclusions: Our results suggest that sudden household energy transition can be effective, given available technology for leap-frogging to high-efficiency electric heating, and generous public support for the program.
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