Abstract
Due to the large-scale utilization of high-carbon fossil energy, considerable amounts of critical air pollutants (CAPs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) have been emitted, which has led to increasingly serious global climate change and local air pollution problems. Given that climate change and air pollution have the same source, energy systems, the rational development and use of energy for collaborative governance should be emphasized to solve these problems in parallel. This paper presents a multi-dimensional, multi-perspective and achievable analysis framework to quantitatively evaluate the emission reduction effects of energy countermeasures aimed at tackling climate change and governing air pollution in support of sustainable development. As a typical developing country pursuing sustainable development, China is taken as an example to demonstrate an application of the proposed framework to assess the emission reduction effects of energy countermeasures issued for tackling climate change and governing air pollution on CAPs and GHG. The results indicate that the key energy actions proposed in this paper would result in emission reductions of approximately 6 million tons (Mt) of CAPs and 575 Mt of GHG in 2016. By 2020 and 2030, emission reductions of 12 Mt of CAPs and 1094 Mt of GHG and of 21 Mt of CAPs and 1975 Mt of GHG, respectively, will be achieved. The proposed framework can effectively help China identify the emissions reduction effect of a given energy countermeasure and support the development of policy describing the next steps for tackling climate change and haze pollution. The proposed framework in this paper is also beneficial for countries similar to China in their efforts to simultaneously address climate change and improve air quality.
Highlights
As the population of the world increases and the economy of the world prospers, and especially as developing countries advance, energy needs have increased significantly
Combined with the analysis framework above and based on a bottom-up method, an emission factor method and a “with or without” comparison method, this section establishes evaluation methods aiming to quantify the environmental benefits of implementing energy measures for tackling climate change and air pollution
For the “increasing the use of natural gas (NG) to replace coal” energy action plan, the emission reduction effect on critical air pollutants (CAPs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) is calculated as Equation (2):
Summary
As the population of the world increases and the economy of the world prospers, and especially as developing countries advance, energy needs have increased significantly. Most previous studies have investigated the co-benefits, including environmental benefits and health benefits, of addressing climate change and air pollution in parallel using simulation models, such as the long-range energy alternatives planning (LEAP) model and the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM/Enduse) model based on scenario settings. He et al [25] adopted an energy projection model, an emission estimation model, an air quality simulation model and a health benefit evaluation model for assessing the co-benefits achieved under different energy policies in China by 2030.
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