Co-benefits of policies to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions in China

Abstract

Coordinated efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions have become an inevitable choice for China's comprehensive green transformation of economic and social in the new stage of development. However, the co-benefits of policies to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions in different departments has not been effectively evaluated. This study uses the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory model for Climate and air pollution research (MEIC) to calculate the carbon and major air pollutants emission tracks at the provincial and sectoral levels in China from the bottom to up. We evaluate the synergies between current pollution reduction policies and carbon reduction policies in the power, industry, transport, resident and agriculture sector. The results show that the implementation of current emission reduction policies has significantly reduced major air pollutants and slowed down the growth rate of CO2 emissions. The synergistic effects of the carbon reduction policy and pollution reduction policies are various in different sectors, and pollution reduction policies have a greater inhibitory effect on controlling air pollution and carbon emission. Under the cooperative control scenario, CO2 emissions will peak in 2028 and basically achieve the carbon emission target of 2 °C in 2050. SO2, NOX, CO, PM2.5, and NH3 emissions will reach 3.7 Mt., 4.9 Mt., 50.3 Mt., 0.9 Mt., and 2.7 Mt. in 2050, respectively.