IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v11y2021i12d10.1038_s41558-021-01216-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation depend on strategic power plant retirements and pollution controls

Author

Listed:
  • Dan Tong

    (Tsinghua University
    University of California, Irvine)

  • Guannan Geng

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Qiang Zhang

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Jing Cheng

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Xinying Qin

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Chaopeng Hong

    (University of California, Irvine)

  • Kebin He

    (Tsinghua University
    Tsinghua University)

  • Steven J. Davis

    (University of California, Irvine)

Abstract

Reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel- and biomass-fired power plants often also reduces air pollution, benefitting both climate and public health. Here, we examine the relationship of climate and health benefits by modelling individual electricity-generating units worldwide across a range of climate–energy policy scenarios. We estimate that ~92% of deaths related to power plant emissions during 2010–2018 occurred in low-income or emerging economies such as China, India and countries in Southeast Asia, and show that such deaths are quite sensitive to future climate–energy trajectories. Yet, minimizing future deaths will also require strategic retirements of super-polluting power plants and deployment of pollution control technologies. These findings underscore the importance of considering public health in designing and implementing climate–energy policies: improved air quality and avoided air pollution deaths are not an automatic and fixed co-benefit of climate mitigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Tong & Guannan Geng & Qiang Zhang & Jing Cheng & Xinying Qin & Chaopeng Hong & Kebin He & Steven J. Davis, 2021. "Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation depend on strategic power plant retirements and pollution controls," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(12), pages 1077-1083, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:12:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01216-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01216-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01216-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-021-01216-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiang, Xueting, 2023. "Rapid decarbonization in the Chinese electric power sector and air pollution reduction Co-benefits in the Post-COP26 Era," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Nakaishi, Tomoaki & Nagashima, Fumiya & Kagawa, Shigemi & Nansai, Keisuke & Chatani, Satoru, 2023. "Quantifying the health benefits of improving environmental efficiency: A case study from coal power plants in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    3. Phoebe Koundouri & Anthony Cox & Arunima Malik & Ben Groom & Brian O'Callaghan & Cameron Hepburn & Catherine Kilelu & Christine Lins & Dale Squires & E. Somanathan & Heba Handoussa & Ian Bateman & Ism, 2023. "The Recovery from the Covid-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity for a Sustainable and Resilient World," DEOS Working Papers 2311, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    4. Zhang, Boling & Wang, Qian & Wang, Sixia & Tong, Ruipeng, 2023. "Coal power demand and paths to peak carbon emissions in China: A provincial scenario analysis oriented by CO2-related health co-benefits," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    5. Guangyuan Cui & Shuang Lu & Donglin Dong & Yanan Zhao, 2023. "Co-Benefits Analysis of Coal De-Capacity in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Xizhe Yan & Dan Tong & Yixuan Zheng & Yang Liu & Shaoqing Chen & Xinying Qin & Chuchu Chen & Ruochong Xu & Jing Cheng & Qinren Shi & Dongsheng Zheng & Kebin He & Qiang Zhang & Yu Lei, 2024. "Cost-effectiveness uncertainty may bias the decision of coal power transitions in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Zheng Liu & Wenzhuo Sun, 2023. "Study on Low-Carbon Technology Investment Strategies for High Energy-Consuming Enterprises under the Health Co-Benefits of Carbon Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, May.
    8. Weng, Zhixiong & Liu, Tingting & Wu, Yufeng & Cheng, Cuiyun, 2022. "Air quality improvement effect and future contributions of carbon trading pilot programs in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:12:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01216-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.