Air Quality in a Cleaner Energy World

Abstract

Two major environmental issues, air quality and climate change, are interlinked because of their large dependence on atmospheric emissions from human activities, especially from the burning of fossil fuels. Emission of air pollutants and heat trapping gases have greatly increased over the last five decades from our dependence throughout the world on conventional fossil fuel sources in production of electricity and in transportation systems, resulting in significant environmental issues with air quality and climate change throughout our planet. Future emissions of pollutants will depend on the choices made about our use of energy and transportation. The purpose of this study is to examine for now and into the future the relationship between energy production, the associated use of fossil fuels, and resulting effects on air pollution. In the process, we examine a clean energy future, imagined in this case for 2050, and then consider the resulting potential effects on air quality.

Reducing global air pollution: the scope for further policy interventions

“…The early global studies on air pollutant emissions, notably the scenarios developed for the ‘Special Report on Emissions Scenarios' [ 21 ] and the ‘Representative Concentration Pathways’ [ 22 , 23 ] that have been prepared for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proposed declining trends of (energy-related) air pollutants, due to autonomous technological progress and assumed pollution control policies along the environmental Kuznets hypothesis. Later, the improved understanding of the importance of targeted air quality policy interventions motivated a more differentiated approach to projections of air pollutant emissions, resulting in a wider range of air pollutant trajectories than in previous global scenarios [ 24 – 26 ]. At the same time, the climate community addressed the interactions between decarbonization strategies and air pollutant emissions, both with the interest to reveal health benefits from low carbon policies [ 24 , 27 – 31 ]) and to explore the combined impacts of long-lived greenhouse gases and short-lived air pollutants (e.g.…”

“…Not so many studies address air pollution at the global scale [26,41,42]. This is not surprising as, due to its physical features, air pollution is often considered as a local/regional and short-term problem, even if it is of universal nature, i.e.…”

Environmental Governance and Gender Inclusivity: Analyzing the Interplay of PM2.5 and Women’s Representation in Political Leadership in the European Union

“…Similarly, an increase in AC_CLEAN can negatively affect PM2.5. These results are supported by many studies stating that using clean energy, such as biofuel and hydroelectric, reduces indoor air pollution [116,117]. Clean cookstoves and access to natural gas reduce PM2.5, thus preventing household exposure to harmful particles [118].…”

Research progress of Co-based spinel oxide materials for direct methanol fuel cells

“…1 For the sustainable development of society, it is urgent to develop a new efficient, clean and green energy source. 2 Fuel cells are the fourth-generation power generation technology after hydropower, thermal power and nuclear energy, and will shoulder the major responsibility of energy innovation and breakthrough. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are considered one of the most promising energy alternatives because they can convert the chemical energy of organic small-molecule fuels into electricity via an electrochemical process.…”