Abstract
Recent studies show that international trade affects global distributions of air pollution and public health. Domestic interprovincial trade has similar effects within countries, but has not been comprehensively investigated previously. Here we link four models to evaluate the effects of both international exports and interprovincial trade on PM2.5 pollution and public health across China. We show that 50–60% of China’s air pollutant emissions in 2007 were associated with goods and services consumed outside of the provinces where they were produced. Of an estimated 1.10 million premature deaths caused by PM2.5 pollution throughout China, nearly 19% (208,500 deaths) are attributable to international exports. In contrast, interprovincial trade leads to improved air quality in developed coastal provinces with a net effect of 78,500 avoided deaths nationwide. However, both international export and interprovincial trade exacerbate the health burdens of air pollution in China’s less developed interior provinces. Our results reveal trade to be a critical but largely overlooked consideration in effective regional air quality planning for China.
Highlights
Recent studies show that international trade affects global distributions of air pollution and public health
We calculate the extent to which international and interprovincial trade resulted in relocation of air pollutant emissions across 30 Chinese provinces and 40 other countries/regions in 2007, and we evaluate the subsequent effects on air quality and public health across China
Our results further demonstrate that the impacts of international exports of Chinese goods on air pollution and public health are unevenly distributed in China
Summary
Recent studies show that international trade affects global distributions of air pollution and public health. Interprovincial trade leads to improved air quality in developed coastal provinces with a net effect of 78,500 avoided deaths nationwide Both international export and interprovincial trade exacerbate the health burdens of air pollution in China’s less developed interior provinces. Zhang et al.[14] proposed a comprehensive framework to differentiate the total mortality of ambient PM2.5 according to the source emissions generated in local production, international exports, and international imports for various regions in the world They indicated that consumption-based premature deaths due to PM2.5 in China (835,110) are much lower than production-based ones (1,023,689). Existing studies of trade-related air pollution in Chinese provinces are not linked with a global multi-regional input−output (MRIO) model, are less accurate in quantifying the impact of international trade, both generally and with regard to specific countries, on China’s air pollution. For a thorough quantitative understanding of the effects of trade on regional air pollution and public health across China, it is essential to integrate interprovincial and international trade into one MRIO model
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