Quantifying the Energy, Environmental, Economic, Resource Co-Benefits and Risks of GHG Emissions Abatement: The Case of Passenger Vehicles in China

This study quantifies the energy, environmental, economic, and resource co-benefits and risks of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement for China’s passenger vehicle fleet. A bottom-up model is established, which can address energy, environmental, economic and resource impacts from the passenger vehicle fleet within one unified framework. The results indicate that for passenger vehicles, the target of GHG emissions abatement generally synergizes with the targets of petroleum security enhancement, urban air quality improvement, and transport cost reduction but conflicts with the targets of rare metal conservation and transport well-being improvement. When the co-benefits and risks are taken into consideration, the design of the GHG emissions abatement scheme becomes more complicated. It is critical to adopt an overall optimization approach so that major co-benefits and risks can be considered and assessed. Such an approach can help prepare more appropriate GHG emission abatement policies.