Examining Air Pollution in China Using Production- And Consumption-Based Emissions Accounting Approaches

Abstract

Two important reasons for China's air pollution are the high emission factors (emission per unit of product) of pollution sources and the high emission intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) of the industrial structure. Therefore, a wide variety of policy measures, including both emission abatement technologies and economic adjustment, must be implemented. To support such measures, this study used the production- and consumption-based emissions accounting approaches to simulate the SO2, NOx, PM2.5, and VOC emissions flows among producers and consumers. This study analyzed the emissions and GDP performance of 36 production sectors. The results showed that the equipment, machinery, and devices manufacturing and construction sectors contributed more than 50% of air pollutant emissions, and most of their products were used for capital formation and export. The service sector had the lowest emission intensities, and its output was mainly consumed by households and the government. In China, the emission intensities of production activities triggered by capital formation and export were approximately twice that of the service sector triggered by final consumption expenditure. This study suggests that China should control air pollution using the following strategies: applying end-of-pipe abatement technologies and using cleaner fuels to further decrease the emission factors associated with rural cooking, electricity generation, and the transportation sector; continuing to limit highly emission-intensive but low value-added exports; developing a plan to reduce construction activities; and increasing the proportion of service GDP in the national economy.

Effects of atmospheric transport and trade on air pollution mortality in China

“…(8) to (10) were derived from mapping process between MEIC model and sectors defined in the MRIO model for each provinces, which can be found in our previous studies (Huo et al, 2014;Zhao et al, 2015). Within each region, emissions attributed to each activator (assembler or consumer) can be allocated to individual locations (grid cells) based on the sector-spatial distribution in MEIC and the attributed ratios:…”

“…For instance, a recent study found that during the month of January 2013-2015, roughly half of the PM 2.5 present in Beijing and Tianjin (47 and 55 %, respectively) was due to emissions produced in other regions . Recent work has further investigated the effect of trade on air pollutant emissions Huo et al, 2014;Zhao et al, 2015;Meng et al, 2016) and related impacts on air quality, health, and climate (Takahashi et al, 2014;Jiang et al, 2015;Lin et al, 2014Lin et al, , 2016Li et al, 2016b;Wang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2017). Here, we assess for the first time the health impacts of trans-boundary PM 2.5 pollution and trade within China.…”

Environment-economy tradeoff for Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei’s exports

“…23  A three-region input-output model was built to analyze the environment-economy tradeoff 24 for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei's exports; 25  BTH bears more pollutant emission ratio than that of economic gains from interprovincial 26 and international exports; 27  Industrial production in Beijing and Tianjin lead to more pollutant emission than value 28 added in Hebei.…”

“…Recently, with the increasing concern over the severe atmospheric 76 pollution in China, exports and associated pollutant emissions have been studied extensively 77 [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Zhao et.al estimated that in 2007, exports accounted for 15-23% of China's PM2.5 and 78 related precursor emissions [26], and comprised 15% (8.3 μg/m 3 ) of the Chinese population-79 weighted PM2.5 concentration [25].…”

Ecological network analysis of embodied particulate matter 2.5 – A case study of Beijing

“…Guan et al [11] analyzed production-related PM 2.5 emission changes in China between 1997 and 2010 to identify the socioeconomic drivers of primary PM 2.5 emissions from a consumption perspective. The disparity between production-and consumption-based emissions inventories in China were also explored in the context of international trade [16,17]. Others borrowed the concept of ''embodied emission" from energy analysis to calculate the emissions embodied in products or services which are traded nationally or globally [18,19].…”