Local Air Pollutant Emissions Research Articles

Environmental Impact of Electrification on Local Public Transport: Preliminary Study

The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of diesel and electric buses, with a focus on pollutant emissions along a mixed urban–rural route in small urban settings. Utilizing a detailed simulation model, this research compares emissions from a diesel bus and an electric bus on a specific route in a small town in central Italy. Key findings reveal that electric buses significantly reduce local exhaust emissions but are not entirely emission-free, considering the full life cycle, including electricity generation. The Well-to-Wheel analysis shows lower CO2 emissions for the electric bus compared with the diesel bus, with a substantial part of the emissions occurring at power generation facilities. Non-exhaust emissions, especially Total Suspended Particles, are similar for both bus types. This study highlights the advantages of adopting electric buses in urban areas to decrease local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. However, it also underscores the importance of cleaner electricity generation methods to fully leverage the environmental benefits of electric vehicles. The findings provide valuable insights for decision makers and urban planners in developing sustainable urban transportation systems.

The effects of cash for clunkers on local air quality

We study the effects of a large car scrappage scheme in Germany on new car purchases and local air quality by combining vehicle registration data with data on local air pollutant emissions. For identification we exploit cross-sectional variation across districts in the number of cars eligible for scrappage. The scheme had substantial effects on car purchases and did not simply reallocate demand across time in the short-term. Nevertheless, about half of all subsidized buyers benefited from windfall gains. The renewal of the car stock improved local air quality suggesting substantial mortality benefits that likely exceed the cost of the policy. While policy take-up is somewhat smaller in urban districts, improvements in air quality and health tend to be larger due to a higher car density.

Regional classification of high PM10 concentrations in the Seoul metropolitan and Chungcheongnam-do areas, Republic of Korea

Since the Seoul metropolitan area is a highly developed megacity, many people are often exposed to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM), with mean aerodynamic diameters equal to or less than 10 μm (PM10), in cold seasons. PM10 concentrations can be influenced by a combination of various factors, including meteorological conditions, anthropogenic emissions, atmospheric chemical reactions, transboundary transport, and geographic characteristics. However, the establishment of an efficient air quality management plan remains challenging due to the limited understanding of the regional PM concentration characteristics. Here, the Seoul metropolitan (Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon) and Chungcheongnam-do (Chungcheongnam-do, Daejeon, and Sejong) areas were regionally classified to identify the spatiotemporal air quality in areas where megacities and emission sources are mixed. The four representative regions were determined using the K-means clustering method based on the temporal variations in the observed PM10 concentrations. The first cluster consisted of small cities in the southern and eastern parts of Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do, respectively, while the second cluster consisted of Incheon, West Gyeonggi-do, and Seoul. In addition, the third and fourth clusters included West Chungcheongnam-do and East Gyeonggi-do, which are adjacent to the Yellow Sea and downstream area of the westerly wind, respectively. The characteristics of each cluster during the high PM10 concentration events are explainable by wind patterns and the local air pollutant emissions, including nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The obtained regional classification was different from the provincial-level administrative division of South Korea. Therefore, the present study is expected to be a scientific basis for overcoming the limitations of air quality management in administrative districts.

Economic and environmental effects of financing subsidies for non-conventional renewable energies with a carbon tax – A comparison of intersectoral models

Non-conventional renewable energy (NCRE) subsidies have been introduced in various countries to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, other social priorities limit the allocation of fiscal resources to this climate policy in Chile. This study analyzes the option of financing NCRE subsidies through carbon taxes in the thermoelectric sector. Specifically, two intersectoral models (the Leontief price model and the SAM price model) are used to simulate the impact of this mix of climate policies on prices, production, employment, and emissions of global and local air pollutants. The results of both models show that CO2 emissions would be reduced slightly in the short term, which is explained by the low current tax rate, the inelasticity of energy demand, and the indirect stimulus of subsidies on production in other sectors of the economy. In addition, it is concluded that the Leontief price model overestimates the impacts since it omits the falls in labor income and household consumption that the SAM price model captures. So, it is recommended to use models based on a social accounting matrix to evaluate energy policies when more sophisticated intersectoral models with endogenous prices and quantities (computable general equilibrium models) are unavailable.

Four decades of aviation visibility at Bhairahawa airport, gateway to Buddha's birthplace Lumbini, Nepal

Over four decades of visibility data at Bhairahawa airport (BWA), a recently upgraded international airport near Lumbini, a UNESCO heritage site in Nepal has been analyzed. In this study, we also investigated one of the important microclimatic behavior of fog i.e., onset and dispersal timings, and its implication on aviation. Temporal variations of poor visibility conditions at BWA are found to be primarily associated with variations in haze and fog. Haze at BWA accounts for the highest percentage (∼27%) of time and its annual occurrence is increasing (0.57% yr−1). There is a significant upward trend of hazy days in all seasons, the highest (1.46% day yr−1) being in post-monsoon. The overall seasonal poor visibility, too, has increased significantly in all seasons, with the highest trend in post-monsoon (1.57% yr−1). Similarly, fog frequency in the winter season has also increased noticeably for fog days (1.05% day yr−1), dense fog days (0.51% day yr−1), general fog hours (0.55% hour yr−1) and dense fog hours (0.20% hour yr−1). We found that fog at BWA is usually formed overnight and dissipates before noon. Daytime onset and late dispersion of fog are more common in the peak winter months of December and January. Further, we investigated the relationship between visibility and aerosol optical depth (AOD) and found a moderate negative correlation (r = − 0.66, p < 0.001) between them in the monsoon season. However, AOD is found to have a weaker correlation with visibility during winter (r = −0.36) and pre-monsoon (r = −0.23) seasons, when there is a more pronounced influence of meteorological conditions on the occurrence of visibility. We have observed a better correlation (r = −0.74) between fine particulate matter concentration (PM2.5) and visibility. Examining the effect of relative humidity (RH) on AOD (or, PM2.5) and visibility revealed that higher RH tends to lower visibility. Visibility at BWA airport is gradually worsening due to local and regional air pollution emissions and changing meteorological conditions. The degraded visibility at BWA airport will negatively impact flight safety and timeliness. Effective implementation of regionally coordinated air pollution mitigation measures can be a sustainable step towards the improvement of visibility in long run. However, the installation of ground equipment like CAT-II/III Instrument Landing System (ILS) for aircraft take-off and landings, and advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS) are highly advisable to lessen the damage potential to aviation.

How does vehicle emission control policy affect air pollution emissions? Evidence from Hainan Province, China

Vehicular emissions have become important sources of air pollution in China. Regarding the environmental impacts of vehicle emission control policies (VECPs), changes in air pollutants and CO2 emissions have attracted more attention. Hainan is the first province in China declared to ban the sale of fuel-powered cars by 2030, aiming to accelerate cutting down the local air pollution emissions. However, there is no previous study examining how these VECPs would affect air pollutants in Hainan. Further, research on whether the controls would lead to a real carbon reduction is limited. Therefore, this paper quantitatively assesses the emission changes of primary air pollutants (including NOx, CO, VOCs, PM2.5, PM10, and PMTSP) and greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) in the transportation sector with regard to different VECPs in Hainan. The results reveal that (1) VECPs would lead to significant increases in vehicular population by 21 %–65 % in 2025–2050. Specifically, light-duty cars and buses with 4-stroke engines (LD4Cs) is the largest contributor and banning sales of fuel-powered vehicles would lead to a larger increase of 1914.6 thousand (64 %) in 2030; (2) for air pollutant emissions, the policy scenario would bring notable reduction effects, decreasing by 1.0 %–16.0 % and 16.7 %–38.7 % in 2030 and 2050 (PM excluding), respectively, suggesting VECPs play important roles in alleviating environmental pollution; (3) conversely, for CO2 emissions, the policy scenario would cause increases of 0.8 Mt. (17.8 %) and 0.3 Mt. (6.1 %) in 2035 and 2050, respectively, indicating promoting new energy vehicles (NEVs) would increase carbon emissions. Meanwhile, it suggests that CO2 emission in the transportation sector of Hainan peaked in 2020. This research highlights that VECPs would be a double-edged sword, leading to air pollutants reductions but not necessarily decline CO2 emissions. This fact would further accelerate mechanism and technological innovation in transport to alleviate air pollution and carbon emissions simultaneously.

Impacts of the differences in PM2.5 air quality improvement on regional transport and health risk in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region during 2013–2017

Due to the implementation of different air pollution control measures in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region during 2013–2017, the air quality exhibited varied improvements in each province, indicating substantial changes in the interprovincial regional transport of PM2.5. In this study, we investigated these changes by using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model coupled with the integrated source apportionment method (ISAM) during this period. The results showed that the concentrations of primary particles, SO42−, and NO3− decreased by 41.5, 40.8, and 1.8%, respectively due to the air pollutants emission reduction. Local air pollutant emissions were the predominant contributors of PM2.5 for each region in BTH, accounting for 41.3–47.6, 38.1–40.6, 50.6–53.6, and 54.0–57.1% of PM2.5 in Beijing, Tianjin, and northern and southern Hebei, respectively. Total PM2.5 has been mitigated by 7.1–12.3 and 5.1–11.7 μg/m3 from local and regional emission reduction, respectively in the BTH. Moreover, diverse local meteorological conditions variation increased the PM2.5 concentration by 5.3 μg/m3 in Tianjin and decreased it by 7.6, 2.0, and 4.9 μg/m3 in Beijing, and northern and southern Hebei, respectively. Estimation by integrated exposure-response function revealed that the number of premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 exposure decreased by approximately 3000 in the BTH region during 2013–2017. Additional policies that focus on PM2.5-O3 coordinated control and stringent regional joint air pollution regulation are required to substantially reduce the health impacts, especially in southern Hebei.

Exhaust and non-exhaust emissions from today’s and future road transport: A simulation-based quantification for Berlin

The full decarbonization of the transport sector is one of the greatest challenges of the coming decades. In this study, both greenhouse gases and local air pollutant emissions are quantified for the today’s situation (reference case), a full decarbonization scenario and a transition scenario. The quantification uses the Handbook Emission factors for road transport (HBEFA, version 4.1) and the simulation framework MATSim (Multi-Agent Transport simulation). In the today’s situation, for an average car user who lives in Berlin, the CO2 footprint amounts to 3.3 tons per year. In contrast, for an average car user who lives in the Greater Berlin area, including Berlin, the CO2 footprint amounts to 4.9 tons per year. In the full decarbonization scenario, greenhouse gases are eliminated. Nevertheless, non-exhaust emissions are still present. In the full decarbonization case, PM10 is found to decrease by 13-15%, PM2.5 by 26-31% and Black Carbon by 63-68% compared to the reference case (year 2020). The applied simulation approach allows for a detailed investigation of further transition scenarios towards full decarbonization.

Electric Two-Wheeler Vehicle Integration into Rural Off-Grid Photovoltaic System in Kenya

In both rural and urban areas, two-wheeler vehicles are the most common means of transportation, contributing to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Transitioning to electric two-wheeler vehicles can help reduce GHG emissions while also increasing the socioeconomic status of people in rural Kenya. Renewable energy systems can play a significant role in charging electric two-wheeled vehicles, resulting in lower carbon emissions and increased renewable energy penetration in rural Kenya. As a result, using the Conventional and Renewable Energy Optimization (CARNOT) Toolbox in the MATLAB/Simulink environment, this paper focuses on integrating and modeling electric two-wheeled vehicles (e-bikes) into an off-grid photovoltaic Water-Energy Hub located in the Lake Victoria Region of Western Kenya. Electricity demand data obtained from the Water-Energy Hub was investigated and analyzed. Potential solar energy surplus was identified and the surplus was used to incorporate the electric two-wheeler vehicles. The energy consumption of the electric two-wheeler vehicles was also measured in the field based on the rider’s driving behavior. The modeling results revealed an annual power consumption of 27,267 kWh, a photovoltaic (PV) electricity production of 37,785 kWh, and an electricity deficit of 370 kWh. The annual results show that PV generation exceeds power consumption, implying that there should be no electricity deficit. The results, however, do not represent the results in hourly resolution, ignoring the impact of weather fluctuation on PV production. As a result, in order to comprehend the electricity deficit, hourly resolution results are shown. A load optimization method was designed to efficiently integrate the electric 2-wheeler vehicle into the Water-Energy Hub in order to alleviate the electricity deficit. The yearly electricity deficit was decreased to 1 kWh and the annual electricity consumption was raised by 11% (i.e., 30,767 kWh), which is enough to charge four more electric two-wheeler batteries daily using the load optimization technique.

City level CO2 and local air pollutants co-control performance evaluation: A case study of 113 key environmental protection cities in China

‘Co-control’, or synergistically reducing CO2 and local air pollutant emissions, is an important strategy for cities to achieve ‘low carbon’ and ‘blue sky’ simultaneously. However, there were few studies to evaluate and compare the level of co-control of CO2 and local air pollutants in cities yet. The present study proposed qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the level of co-control of CO2 and three local air pollutant (SO2, NOx, and particulate matter PM) emissions in key environmental protection cities in China over two periods (2012–2015 and 2015–2018). Statistical analysis found that, though three local air pollutant emissions positively correlated with CO2 emission, no significantly positive correlation was found between local air pollutants emission reductions and CO2 emission reductions, indicating that co-control effects were poor in general. By using the co-control effect coordinate system, qualitative evaluation showed that less than half of the sample cities could achieve co-control of the total amount of CO2 and local air pollutants. By employing the indicator of emission reduction equivalence (EReq), quantitative evaluation showed that the co-control level of the sample cities improved in 2015–2018 compared with 2012–2015. Further regression analysis showed that, reducing coal consumption and economic development significantly enhanced the co-control performance of the observed cities. The present case study proved that the proposed methods for evaluation and comparison of the city co-control performance works well, and can be used in other countries and regions to promote global cities racing to carbon and local air pollutants co-control.

Economic and environmental sustainability of Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer for electric vehicles supporting reduction of local air pollutant emissions

In recent years, Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) technology has gained interest within the market of charging systems for electric vehicles. This technology can potentially boost the diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) and consequently contribute in reducing the local air pollution and the related externalities.In this context, an environmental and economic analysis has been performed to estimate the social costs saving derived by the decarbonization of the passenger cars mobility. The benefits evaluated in the analysis are compared to the investment and maintenance costs necessary to install and operate a DWPT infrastructure. This under the basic assumption of the present work that considers the widespread adoption of electric vehicles achievable only in presence of the parallel integration of DWPT systems in the motorway infrastructure. At the same time, the work takes into account the possible variations of the energy mix and the effects related to the increase of the electric energy demand related to the increase of the circulating electric vehicles.The analysis is carried out for the six most populous European countries (i.e. Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and UK) and it indicates as the estimated social costs savings are capable to sustain the investment for a wide integration of DWPT in almost all these countries.

Evaluation of the impact of the national strike of the road freight transport sector on the air quality of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In May 2018, there was a road freight transport standstill in Brazil that lasted 11 days. During this period, several impacts on Rio de Janeiro’s daily life were reported, such as the reduction of road passenger transport services and lack of fuels. This study aimed to evaluate the impact on the air quality of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro (MRRJ) of the reduction of heavy-duty vehicles on the streets and roads. For this purpose, the reductions of PM10, NOx, SOx and CO emissions, due to low circulation of buses and trucks, were estimated in order to assess the levels of air pollution indirectly. Besides, air quality data (PM10, NO2, SO2, and CO) monitored before and during the strike were used. The results showed a reduction in total emissions of local air pollutants, harmful to human health from 22 % to 43 % during strike days. However, the air quality reflexes were not observed in the same proportion, on the contrary, increases were observed in pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere during traffic stoppage in the study areas, due to different weather conditions in the two periods, which directly influenced air pollutants dispersion.

Transportation and the Environment in Developing Countries

In urban areas around the world, increasing motorization and growing travel demand make the urban transportation sector an ever-greater contributor to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The situation is particularly acute in developing countries, where growing metropolitan regions suffer some of the world's highest levels of air pollution. Policies that seek to develop and manage this transportation sector—both to meet rising demand linked to economic growth and to safeguard the environment and human health—have had strikingly different results, with some inadvertently exacerbating the traffic and pollution they seek to mitigate. This review summarizes findings in the recent literature on the impacts of a host of urban transportation policies used in both developed- and developing-country settings. The article identifies research challenges and future areas of study regarding transportation policies, which can have important, long-lasting impacts on urban life and global climate change.

Evaluation of potential co-benefits of air pollution control and climate mitigation policies for China's electricity sector

Abstract Since the rapid industrialisation, local air pollution has become one of China's most important environmental issues. In consequence, increasingly stringent air pollution control policies have been established by the Chinese government. These policies will inevitably affect China's future electric power investment given the key contribution of this sector to air pollution. This sector is also a key contributor to China’s greenhouse gas emissions and hence climate policy efforts. We present a study exploring what impacts of potential interactions and combinations of different policy efforts for local air pollutant control and carbon mitigation have on China's future electricity generation mix. The study utilises a novel generation portfolio model that explicitly incorporates key uncertainties in future technology costs and different policy approaches including carbon pricing and air emissions control. The findings highlight that China can achieve significant reductions for both greenhouse gas and local air pollutant emissions through a combination of climate change and air pollution control policies. Furthermore, there are potentially significant co-benefits from the perspectives of both air pollutant control and carbon mitigation and, notably, that the co-benefit from a sufficient carbon pricing policy to air pollution emission reductions is much stronger than that from stringent air pollutant control policies to carbon mitigation. Specifically, in order to achieve substantial local air pollution and greenhouse gas mitigation from China's electricity sector, it is necessary to close coal-fired power plants rather than merely seeking to clean their air pollution emissions up.

On-Demand Automotive Fleet Electrification Can Catalyze Global Transportation Decarbonization and Smart Urban Mobility.

Mobility on-demand vehicle (MODV) services have grown explosively in recent years, threatening targets for local air pollution and global carbon emissions. Despite evidence that on-demand automotive fleets are ripe for electrification, adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in fleet applications has been hindered by lack of charging infrastructure and long charging times. Recent research on electrification programs in Chinese megacities suggests that top-down policy targets can spur investment in charging infrastructure, while intelligent charging coordination can greatly reduce requirements for battery range and infrastructure, as well as revenue losses due to time spent charging. Such capability may require labor policy reform to allow fleet operators to manage their drivers' charging behavior, along with collection and integration of several key data sets including (1) vehicle trajectories and energy consumption, (2) charging infrastructure installation costs, and (3) real-time charging station availability. In turn, digitization enabled by fleet electrification holds the potential to enable a host of smart urban mobility strategies, including integration of public transit with innovative transportation systems and emission-based pricing policies.

Effectiveness of China's plug-in electric vehicle subsidy

Abstract Subsidies for promoting plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) adoption are a key component of China's overall plan for reducing local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle sector. In this paper, we explore the impact and cost-effectiveness of the Chinese PEV subsidy program. In particular, a vehicle choice model is estimated using a large random sample of individual level, model year 2017 Chinese new vehicle purchases. The choice model is then used to predict PEV market share under alternative policies. Simulation results suggest that the 2.5% PEV market share of Chinese new vehicle sales in 2017 resulted in China's new vehicle fleet fuel economy improving by roughly 2%, reducing total gasoline consumption by 6.66 billion liters. However, the current PEV subsidy in China is expensive, costing $1.90 per additional liter of gasoline saved. This is due to a large number of non-additional PEV buyers, particularly high income consumers, who would have purchased the PEV regardless of the subsidy. Eliminating the subsidy for high income consumers and increasing it for low income consumers could result in a substantially lower cost per additional PEV ($13,758 versus $24,506). This would allow for greater PEV adoption (3.11% versus 2.47% market share) for the same budget. In terms of the impact of the recently announced subsidy reduction, results suggest that the PEV market share in China would have declined by 21% had the subsidy been halved without any countervailing measures. Using the same reduced budget, had zero PEV subsidies been given to high-income consumers and higher subsidies been given to low-income consumers, the PEV market share would have declined by only 8%.

Quantifying air quality co-benefits of climate policy across sectors and regions

The overlap in sources of greenhouse gas and local air pollutant emissions creates scope for policy measures to limit global warming and improve air quality simultaneously. In a first step, we derive estimates for the air pollution mortality-related component of the social cost of atmospheric release for 6 pollutants and 56 regions in the world. Combining these estimates with emission inventory data highlights that sector contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution health impacts differ widely across regions. Next, simulations of future emission pathways consistent with the 2 °C and 1.5 °C targets illustrate that strengthening climate policy ambition raises the total value of air quality co-benefits despite lower marginal co-benefits per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions abated. Finally, we use results from a multi-model ensemble to quantify and compare the value of health-related ambient air quality co-benefits of climate policy across sectors and regions. On the global level, overall air quality co-benefits range from $8 to $40 per tonne of greenhouse gases abated in 2030, with median across models and scenarios of $18/tCO2e. These results mask strong differentiation across regions and sectors, with median co-benefits from mitigation in the residential and service sectors in India exceeding $500/tCO2e. By taking a sector- and region-specific perspective, the results presented here reveal promising channels to improve human health outcomes and to ratchet up greenhouse gas reduction efforts to bridge the gap between countries’ pledges and the global targets of the Paris Agreement.

Economic, environmental and distributive analysis of the taxes to global and local air pollutants in Chile

In 2017, environmental taxes on the emissions of global (CO2) and local air pollutants (SO2, NOx, and PM) were introduced in Chile for stationary sources with thermal power greater than or equal to 50 MWt. Therefore, this paper uses the environmental extension of the Leontief price model and micro-simulations to analyze the main economic, environmental, and distributive effects of this policy. The results show that with the current tax rates, a minimal decrease in emissions is achieved. Also, other scenarios are simulated to evaluate the impact of modifying the current tax rates. For example, it is determined that the increase in taxes on local (global) pollutants complements the reduction of emissions from global (local) pollutants. Finally, the results of the Leontief price model are transferred to microdata to analyze the effects on the poverty rate and income distribution. The micro-simulations show that the indicators of the income distribution are little sensitive to the environmental taxes on global and local air pollutants, but the poverty rate rises more in the case of increases in the CO2 tax.

Towards a Low Emission Transport System: Evaluating the Public Health and Environmental Benefits

Climate change mitigation strategies offer significant societal co-benefits such as improvement in public health, air quality, local economy, and even safety. By considering these co-benefits during the transportation planning process, local governments would be able to link their local appreciate mitigation actions into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where diverse objectives should be achieved simultaneously. This study first clarifies the co-benefits approach to climate change mitigation in the transport system, by introducing an integrated multiple-impact framework known as A-S-I (Avoid-Shift-Improve) to evaluate the co-benefits. Thereafter, it applies the quantitative modeling approach to assess public health and environmental co-benefits of the implementation of the Tehran Transportation Master Plan, “the TTMP” in the city of Tehran, Iran, which includes targeted interventions such as shifting from private vehicles to the urban transport system, improving vehicle technologies and introducing alternative fuels. The results from the application of “the TTMP” reveal a significant reduction of CO2 and other local air pollutant emissions by 12.9 and 1.4 million tons, respectively, prevention of about 10,000 mortality cases, and more than USD 35 million savings by 2030.

Investigating the Impacts of Energy Access Scenarios in the Nigerian Household Sector by 2030

Lack of access to modern forms of energy continues to hamper socio-economic development in Nigeria, and about 94% and 39% of the Nigerian population do not have access to clean cooking equipment and electricity, respectively. The United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative and Sustainable Development Goal number seven seek to provide universal modern energy for all by 2030. However, the implications of these global goals on Nigeria’s energy system have not been well researched in the literature. In this study, we applied the Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning Systems model to analyse the impacts of different energy access scenarios by 2030 on household energy consumption, CO2 emissions and local air pollutant emissions. We also analysed different scenarios for biomass renewability in order to understand its impact on household net CO2 emissions. We found that achieving a 100% modern energy access by 2030 would reduce final energy demand by around 845 PJ, which is equivalent to a 52.4% reduction when compared to the baseline scenario. A 100% modern access would also significantly reduce local air pollutants, but increase CO2 emissions significantly by 16.7 MtCO2 compared to the baseline scenario. Our analysis shows that the benefits of modern energy access have been limited in Nigeria due to poor financing and low income levels of households. Therefore, we argue that for a 100% modern energy access in Nigeria by 2030, there is a need to explore local and foreign funding sources, and a serious need to couple energy access programs in the country with income-generating activities.