Mitigation Co-benefits Research Articles

The co-benefits of a low-carbon future for PM2.5 and O3 air pollution in Europe

Abstract. There is considerable academic interest in the potential for air quality improvement as a co-benefit of climate change mitigation. Few studies use regional air quality models for simulating future co-benefits, but many use global chemistry–climate model output. Using regional atmospheric chemistry could provide a better representation of air quality changes than global chemistry–climate models, especially by improving the representation of elevated urban concentrations. We use a detailed regional atmospheric-chemistry model (WRF-Chem v4.2) to model European air quality in 2050 compared to 2014 following three climate change mitigation scenarios. We represent different climate futures by using air pollutant emissions and chemical boundary conditions (from CESM2-WACCM output) for three shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP3-7.0: high-, medium- and low-mitigation pathways respectively). We find that in 2050, following SSP1-2.6, mean population-weighted PM2.5 concentrations across European countries are reduced by 52 % compared to 2014. Under SSP2-4.5, this average reduction is 34%. The smallest average reduction is 18 %, achieved following SSP3-7.0. Maximum 6-monthly-mean daily-maximum 8 h (6mDM8h) ozone (O3) is reduced across Europe by 15 % following SSP1-2.6 and by 3 % following SSP2-4.5, but it increases by 13 % following SSP3-7.0. This demonstrates clear co-benefits of climate mitigation. The additional resolution allows us to analyse regional differences and identify key sectors. We find that the mitigation of agricultural emissions will be key for attaining meaningful co-benefits of mitigation policies, as evidenced by the importance of changes in NO3 aerosol mass to future PM2.5 air quality and changes in CH4 emissions to future O3 air quality.

Climate change and public health: An evaluation framework for local government

ObjectivesTo develop and pilot an evaluation framework for assessing the engagement of local government public health teams in England on climate change and sustainability. These teams are uniquely positioned to address local health impacts of climate change and promote health co-benefits of mitigation. No statutory framework currently exists to support their engagement in this agenda. Study designLiterature review and two cross sectional surveys. MethodsA group of public health professionals conducted a literature review and agreed on criteria based on statutory responsibilities and remit of these teams, available information, and opportunities for local government action. With the resulting framework, this group evaluated all 11 local governments in the East of England region, and then conducted a follow-up survey to assess the framework’s impact and acceptability. ResultsAn evaluation framework was developed with 21 criteria in two sections. The first assessed overall local government action and leadership in climate change and sustainability, to understand the context in which the public health team was situated. The second assessed the climate change related actions undertaken by the public health team.All 11 local governments in the East of England region completed the evaluation. Results indicated inconsistencies in local public health team action on and engagement with climate change and health. Ten local governments completed the follow-up survey on acceptability and impact, reporting that the evaluation was easy to complete. Seven out of ten respondents found that the evaluation had influenced change or reflection within their organisation, for example through identifying gaps and prompting more collaboration between teams. ConclusionsThis evaluation framework is a useful and acceptable tool to assess local government public health engagement and leadership on climate change and sustainability. If used more widely, it could help to support public health teams to advance much-needed action in this area.

Environmental co-benefits of climate mitigation: Evidence from clean development mechanism projects in China

The carbon reduction effects of climate mitigation have received much attention, but less attention has been paid to the co-benefits of climate mitigation such as air pollution reduction and related health impacts. This oversight may have led to an underestimation of the broader welfare effects of climate mitigation and thus hindering its progress in implementation. This paper investigates the co-benefits of climate mitigation through focusing on the pollution reduction effects of the implementation of the clean development mechanism (CDM), which is an important climate mitigation mechanism to enhance north-south climate cooperation. Using a unique firm-level dataset with data on China's CDM projects from 1998 to 2012, we show that the CDM implementation reduced sulfur dioxide emissions. Mechanism analyses show that the CDM implementation alleviated firms' financing constraints and promoted fossil energy savings, thereby reducing emissions of air pollutants that usually coexist with greenhouse gases in burning fossil fuels. We also find that the CDM didn't bring about the expected technological progress. These results highlight environmental co-benefits of climate mitigation and provide important implications for international climate cooperation

The Transformative Role of Adaptation Strategies in Designing Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Health Systems.

This article describes the growing repository of evidence-informed climate-related health actions and builds a case for transformative adaptation strategies. The health impacts of climate change are far-reaching and diverse, affecting vulnerable populations disproportionately and at varying scales. While adaptation policies and plans are becoming increasingly intersectional, there is limited implementation of health-focused adaptation interventions. Securing finance at scale, for one, is a challenge. Funds are not being mobilized at the rate or scale required. Least developed countries and small island developing states are most at-risk and the least likely to recover, even under conservative global warming scenarios. Thus, this article spotlights opportunities for more resilient and equitable health systems across key dimensions of health surveillance, service delivery, infrastructure, finance, capacity development and policy coherence. Given limits to adaptation, co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation actions will need to be systematically assessed and prioritized to address the residual effects of climate disasters.

Impacts of US Public R&D Investments on Agricultural Productivity and GHG Emissions

AbstractThis study formally links the literature on R&D-driven productivity growth to studies which examine GHG emission benefits from increased farm productivity growth. Using a global agricultural model and estimates from the literature, this study examines the impact of greater US public agricultural R&D spending over 2025−2035. The results show that roughly doubling public R&D investments in US agriculture could provide greater economic gains relative to its costs over the period 2017−2050. The GHG mitigation co-benefits from these investments also can be enhanced by combining R&D policies with strategies aimed at directly reducing farm inputs.

The spatial heterogeneity of synergy and trade-off linkages between carbon and air pollutant mitigations in China's steel industry

The linkages between CO2 and air pollutant mitigations in the steel industry, including synergies and trade-offs, have significant spatial heterogeneities. Previous research has only investigated the linkages at the industrial level and overlooked the spatial heterogeneity features, which hinders the precise decision making on mitigation strategies. This study quantifies the linkages between CO2, SO2, NOx, and PM mitigations across cities in China's steel industry. A database of 3689 steel production units is established to calculate the emissions. Then, the linkages of mitigation targets of each city are quantified by setting the tailored mitigation pathways in 2019–2035. The results show that the emissions are highly spatially heterogeneous, as the top five contributing cities account for 27.7–33.2% of the total emissions of China's steel industry, but their emission efficiencies are not necessarily worse than the average. The mitigation pathways cause two-sided relationships, as 138 cities will earn mitigation co-benefits to varying degrees, but other 11 cities show the trade-offs. In addition, the mitigation pathway will lead to the highest economic costs as 51.2 billion CNY/a, bringing heavy economic burdens to some cities. This study enriches the co-mitigation management theory and supports the formulation of spatially differentiated mitigation targets and measures.

Pathways toward PM2.5 air quality attainment and its CO2 mitigation co-benefits in China's northern cities by 2030

Rapid economic development and urbanization have left millions of people in urban areas vulnerable to the adverse effects of air pollution. Reducing serious PM2.5 pollution remains a major policy challenge for Chinese cities, such as the “2 + 26” Cities in the most polluted region of China, despite adopting various air pollution-control measures since 2017. In this study, we use a Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies model for the “2 + 26” Cities to explore feasible pathways for achieving the PM2.5 air quality annual standard (35 μg/m3) until 2030 by developing four future scenarios based on a 2017 emission inventory. The results show that by continuing the control policies from before 2020, including the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan from 2013 and the Three-Year Action Plan for Wining the Blue Sky Defense Battle from 2018, and implementing the policies likely to be proposed after 2020, the “2 + 26” Cities will not succeed in achieving the standard by 2030; furthermore, the amount of the population living below 35 μg/m3 will not exceed 12%. Nevertheless, by combining the best available technologies, the regional average PM2.5 concentration in the “2 + 26” Cities is 34 μg/m3 by 2030, attaining the target; moreover, more than half of the population will experience air quality that conforms to the standard. Under this scenario, emissions of primary PM2.5, SO2, NOx, NH3 and NMVOCs are estimated to decrease by 75%, 69%, 76%, 32% and 52%, respectively, in 2017–2030. The emission reductions under alternative scenarios vary widely across cities, indicating the need for differentiated control strategies among cities. Considering the predominant contributions to emissions and the lack of effective control measures, fuel conversion, off-road, agricultural and solvent use sectors should be paid more attention to enable further emission reductions in future. In addition, CO2 emission reduction co-benefits of implemented clean air action measures have been identified; however, the negative reduction effects of these measures should be given more attention (e.g., increased carbon emissions in the power sector from electrification of end-users).

Carbon pricing, health co-benefits and trade-offs: protocol for a systematic framework synthesis

Carbon pricing is considered an important instrument in the fight against climate change (World Bank, 2022). In particular, many experts and stakeholders have called for the implementation of carbon pricing as a part of ambitious climate policy agendas (Hepburn et al., 2020). This requires consideration of the interactions of carbon pricing with other policies, as well as of the societal outcomes of carbon pricing. In particular, carbon pricing has been found to have potentially large health impacts, leading to important co-benefits as well as potentially some trade-offs (Parry et al., 2014), (Hasegawa et al., 2018). Information on health impacts of carbon pricing, their distribution and how they are affected by policy design is necessary in order to progress towards more socially sustainable and politically feasible policy design. Recent reviews have focussed on various aspects of carbon pricing design and outcomes, synthesizing evidence on its effectiveness, equity impacts or societal perception (Boyce, 2018), (Green, 2021), (Maestre-Andrés et al., 2019). Others have reviewed the evidence on health co-benefits of mitigation, but do not analyse specific policies or issues of policy design Gao et al.(2018). This review will narratively synthesize the evidence on the health impacts of carbon pricing between 2010 and 2021 and identify gaps in the literature. We will use a framework synthesis approach to analyse different categories of policy-relevant information in contexts where carbon pricing is implemented as part of wider, coordinated policy agendas or complex policy mixes. This includes for example impacts on health inequalities and how health co-benefits are affected by issues of policy design and policy interactions.

Climate change and health in school-based education: A scoping review protocol.

Taking into account the adverse impacts of climate change on human health, the importance of increasing knowledge and gaining essential skills is necessary to mitigate and adapt to its impacts and protect human health. Researchers and experts are urging for more research in the climate-health nexus, as well as calling for efforts that establish climate and health educational goals. They encourage the development of agreed upon, articulated science-based curricula and resources addressing climate-health issues. This review aims to map out the current state of integration of climate change education in school-based education across the world and identify the human health topics included. Furthermore, it aims to explore the extents to which levels of prevention and health co-benefits of climate mitigation and adaptation are covered within the framework of school-based climate change education. Five electronic databases will be searched for peer reviewed articles in English, from year 2000-to May 2022. The findings from the study will be useful to school curricula developers looking to expand climate change education. This review will also highlight potential research gaps in education on climate change-related health in schools. The scoping review was preregistered with the Open Science Framework [registration DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8U5GK].

Climate policy and the concept of co-benefits in India

Until the late 1990s, developing countries had perceived the pursuit of development as coming into conflict with the mitigation of climate change. Research showed that mitigation and development can go hand in hand, giving rise to the co-benefits approach. In this paper, the relationship between aiming for development and aiming for climate change mitigation is analyzed from the perspective of the developing country India. While industrialized countries prefer the approach of co-benefits of mitigation, developing countries tend to follow the development-first paradigm with mitigation co-benefits, as a literature and document study show. India had a long way to come from the notion that mitigation was threatening economic growth to adopting the co-benefits approach. The paradigms of “differentiated responsibilities” and of having a right to emit as much as the industrialized countries are deeply rooted. This is also shown by India’s reaction to the current economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Pot cultivation' as a form of soil and water conservation technique for adaptation to soil condition and climate change in karst area

Shallow soil is found in Gunungsewu karst area of Gunungkidul Indonesia, often referred as 'soilly rock'. Its the main problem are limited of growing medium and soil loss due to erosion. ‘Pot cultivation’ (PC) is term to describe technique of cultivating crop on small plot of soil between rock. Study aimed to determine 1) the practice of soil and water conservation (SWC) techniques of PC as a form of adaptation to soil condition, 2) the potency of PC for adaptation and mitigation of climate change in karst area. Research was conducted in Gunungsewu karst area, from January to August 2020. Study method was observation and interview. Results showed that practice of PC was carried out as form of adaptation to shallow soil in karst area. Soil is managed to fill the rocks, so sufficient as plant growth medium. Rock functions as a 'pot'. Rock 'pots' function like terraces in SWC. PC is effective way in increase of growing medium, preventing soil from erosion, preserving soil organic carbon, and as an action of adaptation and mitigation co-benefit. The results of this study are expected to be useful for development of karst area which have shallow soil.

Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world

Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world

Sustainable on-farm strategy for the disposal of antibiotic fermentation residue: Co-benefits for resource recovery and resistance mitigation

Antibiotic fermentation residue is a key issue for the sustainable operation of pharmaceutical companies, and its improper disposal may cause antibiotic resistance transfer in the environment. However, little is known about the resource recycling strategy of this pharmaceutical waste. Herein, we used hydrothermal spray-dried (HT+SD) and multi-plate dryer (MD) methods to produce bio-organic fertilizers and applied them to an internal recycling model of a field trial. The concentrations of antibiotics (penicillin, cephalosporin, and erythromycin) in the bio-fertilizer, wastewater, and exhaust gas were in the range of 0.002–0.68 mg/kg, ≤ 0.35 ng/mL, and 0.03–0.89 ng/mL, respectively. The organic matter and total nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium contents were approximately 80% and 10%, respectively. The soil bacterial community was similar among the fertilizer treatments in the same crop cultivation. A total of 233 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and 43 mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were detected, including seven Rank I ARGs and five Rank II ARGs. Random forest analysis showed that gene acc(3)-Via and plasmid trb-C were biomarkers, for which the resistance and the transfer mechanisms were antibiotic inactivation and conjugation, respectively. The results imply that AFR recycling disposal mode is a promising prospect for pharmaceutical waste management.

Quantification of blue carbon in salt marshes of the Pacific coast of Canada

Abstract. Tidal salt marshes are known to accumulate “blue carbon” at high rates relative to their surface area, which render these systems among the Earth's most efficient carbon (C) sinks. However, the potential for tidal salt marshes to mitigate global warming remains poorly constrained because of the lack of representative sampling of tidal marshes from around the globe, inadequate areal extent estimations, and inappropriate dating methods for accurately estimating C accumulation rates. Here we provide the first estimates of organic C storage and accumulation rates in salt marshes along the Pacific coast of Canada, within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, a region currently underrepresented in global compilations. Within the context of other sites from the Pacific coast of North America, these young Clayoquot Sound marshes have relatively low C stocks but are accumulating C at rates that are higher than the global average with pronounced differences between high and low marsh habitats. The average C stock calculated during the past 30 years is 54 ± 5 Mg C ha−1 (mean ± standard error), which accounts for 81 % of the C accumulated to the base of the marsh peat layer (67 ± 9 Mg C ha−1). The total C stock is just under one-third of previous global estimates of salt marsh C stocks, likely due to the shallow depth and young age of the marsh. In contrast, the average C accumulation rate (CAR) (184 ± 50 g C m−2 yr−1 to the base of the peat layer) is higher than both CARs from salt marshes along the Pacific coast (112 ± 12 g C m−2 yr−1) and global estimates (91 ± 7 g C m−2 yr−1). This difference was even more pronounced when we considered individual marsh zones: CARs were significantly greater in high marsh (303 ± 45 g C m−2 yr−1) compared to the low marsh sediments (63 ± 6 g C m−2 yr−1), an observation unique to Clayoquot Sound among NE Pacific coast marsh studies. We attribute low CARs in the low marsh zones to shallow-rooting vegetation, reduced terrestrial sediment inputs, negative relative sea level rise in the region, and enhanced erosional processes. Per hectare, CARs in Clayoquot Sound marsh soils are approximately 2–7 times greater than C uptake rates based on net ecosystem productivity in Canadian boreal forests, which highlights their potential importance as C reservoirs and the need to consider their C accumulation capacity as a climate mitigation co-benefit when conserving for other salt marsh ecosystem services.

Climate change mitigation scenario databases should incorporate more non-IAM pathways

Ajay Gambhir is a senior research fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. His research focuses on climate change mitigation, including integrated assessment modeling, national and sectoral energy modeling, and rural electrification. He also researches low-carbon technology innovation and cost-reduction processes, as well as just transitions and climate change mitigation co-benefits. Before becoming an academic, he was a UK government economist and policy analyst, during which time he worked on the UK Climate Change Act and the development of the UK’s carbon budgets. He holds a PhD in energy economics from Imperial College London. Gaurav Ganguly is the Chief Economist for Europe and the Middle East and the Head of the Climate Scenario Group at Moodys Analytics. He specializes in creating macroeconomic scenarios that explain the transmission of a range of risks such as climate change, geopolitics, deglobalization, and fiscal and monetary policy. He has been a fellow at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London where he developed a framework for using climate scenarios within financial institutions. He holds a DPhil in economics from the University of Oxford. Shivika Mittal is a research fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, with eight years’ experience working on climate change mitigation. Her work focuses on assessing low-carbon pathways at global, regional, and national levels using integrated assessment models, as well as national and sectoral energy models. She was a contributing author on the low-carbon transport chapter of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on mitigation of climate change. She holds a PhD in integrated assessment modeling from the Public Systems Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. Ajay Gambhir is a senior research fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. His research focuses on climate change mitigation, including integrated assessment modeling, national and sectoral energy modeling, and rural electrification. He also researches low-carbon technology innovation and cost-reduction processes, as well as just transitions and climate change mitigation co-benefits. Before becoming an academic, he was a UK government economist and policy analyst, during which time he worked on the UK Climate Change Act and the development of the UK’s carbon budgets. He holds a PhD in energy economics from Imperial College London. Gaurav Ganguly is the Chief Economist for Europe and the Middle East and the Head of the Climate Scenario Group at Moodys Analytics. He specializes in creating macroeconomic scenarios that explain the transmission of a range of risks such as climate change, geopolitics, deglobalization, and fiscal and monetary policy. He has been a fellow at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London where he developed a framework for using climate scenarios within financial institutions. He holds a DPhil in economics from the University of Oxford. Shivika Mittal is a research fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, with eight years’ experience working on climate change mitigation. Her work focuses on assessing low-carbon pathways at global, regional, and national levels using integrated assessment models, as well as national and sectoral energy models. She was a contributing author on the low-carbon transport chapter of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on mitigation of climate change. She holds a PhD in integrated assessment modeling from the Public Systems Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Devising health policies to address climate change

Climate change will have negative effects on health everywhere, but there will be gradations in severity The healthcare sector needs to get as close to net zero as possible Policies that have co-benefits for both mitigation and health should be prioritised Countermeasures must be developed against diseases and conditions that will increase with climate change Policy goals have costs and the trade-offs need to be acknowledged and minimised.

Macroeconomic co-benefits of DRR investment: assessment using the Dynamic Model of Multi-hazard Mitigation CoBenefits (DYNAMMICs) model

PurposeThe authors present a dynamic macroeconomic model for assessment of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies under multiple hazards. The model can be used to analyze and compare various potential policies in terms of their economic consequences. The decomposition of these effects into multiple benefits helps policy makers and other stakeholders better understand the ex ante and ex-post advantages of DRR investments. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachA dynamic real business cycle model is at the core of this research. In the model multiple natural hazards modeled stochastically cause shocks to the economy. Economic outcomes, most importantly, output can be assessed before and after disasters and under various DRR policies. The decomposition of benefits aims to quantify the concept of triple dividends.FindingsIn case study applications in Tanzania and Zambia, the authors find that investments into physical infrastructure and risk transfer instruments generate a variety of benefits even in the absence of disaster. A land use restriction with planned relocation for example reduces output in the short run but in the long run increases it. Overall, policy effects of various DRR interventions evolve in a nonmonotonic manner and should be evaluated over a long period of time using dynamic simulation.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study lies in the economic quantification of multiple benefits described in the triple dividends literature. This helps comparing ex ante, ex-post and volatility-related economic effects of multiple disasters and related physical and financial DRR investment options. As observed in the case studies, the model can also identify overlooked temporal heterogeneity of co-benefits of DRR investments.

Looking forward: COVID-19 and greenhouse gas emissions

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the global economy, thus decreasing carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 7%, raising hopes that a legacy of the pandemic would be a permanent shift in the trajectory of emissions. METHODS: Greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the pandemic will be reviewed, along with the implications of greenhouse gas emissions along various recovery pathways. RESULTS: During the first year of the pandemic, surface, especially road, transport was affected the most, primary the result of restrictions aimed at reducing infection rates. These changes altered exposures to PM2.5 (increase) and ozone (decrease), potentially reducing premature mortality and avoiding hospital admissions. Scenarios of possible recovery pathways include focusing on returning to the "old” economy, decoupling GDP growth from CO2 emissions, and focusing on achieving a more sustainable and inclusive climate-resilient pathway. Incorporating health co-benefits into estimates of the cost of mitigation policies and technologies could help motivate individuals to countries to shift to climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Achieving the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming at less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures requires rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, more rapid than occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantifying health co-benefits of mitigation can be a key element in achieving a more sustainable and resilient future. KEYWORDS: climate change; greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gas mitigation co-benefits across the global agricultural development programs

Global agricultural development programs aim to support smallholder farmers and farming communities by strengthening sustainable and resilient food production systems – which can also promote climate change mitigation as a co-benefit by reducing the emissions and enhancing removals of greenhouse gases (GHG). This study presents estimated GHG emissions reductions of almost 100 agricultural development projects over 51 low- and middle-income countries supported by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), USAID-Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, previously DfID). Together, these projects promoted a net GHG emissions reduction of 6.5 MtCO2e per year. The forest management and promotion of improved agroforestry systems in the project areas contributed the most to the total mitigation co-benefits of the investment portfolios (∼3.9 MtCO2e/y). Improved crop management with minimum tillage practices, residue incorporation, water management in paddy rice, and the use of organic fertilizers also made a large contribution to the GHG emissions reduction (∼1.5 MtCO2e/y). Grass and pasture land management across the selected projects account for a net emission reduction of 0.2 MtCO2e/y. The implementation of improved agricultural practices in combination proves more effective for improving productivity and generating mitigation co-benefits than used in isolation. However, the aggregate impacts of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration should be interpreted carefully, which quickly can be lost quick. The interventions promoted by the global agricultural development programs have shown immense potential in reducing net GHG emissions or emission intensity in agriculture and allied sectors. For moving forward to achieve the net-zero and 1.5 °C goals including food security, the global agriculture development programs need to prioritize working on agriculture policy development and implementation so that agriculture expansion does not continue to drive land-use change. This needs to move from the traditional agriculture development programs to transformational changes.

Co-benefits of CO2 emission reduction from China’s clean air actions between 2013-2020

Climate change mitigation measures can yield substantial air quality improvements while emerging clean air measures in developing countries can also lead to CO2 emission mitigation co-benefits by affecting the local energy system. Here, we evaluate the effect of China’s stringent clean air actions on its energy use and CO2 emissions from 2013-2020. We find that widespread phase-out and upgrades of outdated, polluting, and inefficient combustion facilities during clean air actions have promoted the transformation of the country’s energy system. The co-benefits of China’s clean air measures far outweigh the additional CO2 emissions of end-of-pipe devices, realizing a net accumulative reduction of 2.43 Gt CO2 from 2013-2020, exceeding the accumulated CO2 emission increase in China (2.03 Gt CO2) during the same period. Our study indicates that China’s efforts to tackle air pollution induce considerable climate benefit, and measures with remarkable CO2 reduction co-benefits deserve further attention in future policy design.