Assessment on the Synergistic Effect of China’s Urban Air Pollution Control Policies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, major cities in China generally face the increasingly severe pressures of reducing the emissions of local air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Synergistically controlling the emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases has become a major strategic choice for China to improve domestic environmental quality and cope with the pressure of reducing global carbon emissions and strengthening the construction of ecological civilization. To tackle the increasingly prominent issue of regional air and environmental pollution, the State Council issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in September 2013. Subsequently, many cities formulated more detailed air pollution prevention and control plans, in which many tasks involved industrial restructuring, energy structure enhancement, and other related content. The implementation of these measures objectively has exerted significant impacts on urban energy consumption activities and corresponding carbon dioxide emissions. Based on this, this study selects the low-carbon pilot city Chongqing as a case example to evaluate the synergistic effect of air pollutant emissions reduction and greenhouse gas emissions reduction of the city. The results present that city is the entity that is most suitable to carry out synergistic control, and green and low-carbon development is conducive to the optimal allocation of urban overall resources and the minimization of social governance costs. Among air pollution prevention and control measures, structural emissions reduction measures in terms of stationary source pollution control, such as shutting down thermal power plants, closing small cement plants, and eliminating coal-fired boilers, have exerted a significant effect on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and eliminating yellow label vehicles and old cars in terms of mobile source pollution control is the most effective measure for synergistic emissions reduction. In addition, the synergistic effect of energy structure enhancement on emissions reduction is also prominent.KeywordsCitiesAir pollution control policiesGreenhouse gas emissions reductionMutual benefits