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India has set a target of 100 GW solar installation capacity by the year 2022. However, the loss of solar energy due to environmental factors like air pollution is not properly considered in renewable energy resource assessments. Here we show that India lost 29% of its utilizable global horizontal irradiance potential due to air pollution between 2001 and 2018. The average loss in output incurred by solar power systems with horizontal, fixed-tilt, single-axis, and dual-axis trackers due to air pollution is estimated to be 12%, 26%, 33%, and 41%, respectively, equivalent to a loss of 245–835 million USD annually. The successful implementation of the National Clean Air Program and the complete mitigation of household emissions through the supply of cleaner fuel for domestic use and rural electrification would allow India to generate a surplus of 6–16 TWh of electricity per year from the existing installed solar power capacity in 2018. This translates to an economic benefit of 325–845 million USD annually, which is equivalent to the implementation costs of these social programs. Mitigating air pollution would therefore accelerate India’s progress towards achieving its solar energy target at a lesser installation capacity, avoiding additional expenditure for the expansion of the solar energy infrastructure.

Environmental pollution of the air, water, and soil comprise an increasingly urgent challenge to global health, well-being, and productivity. The impact of environmental pollution arguably has its greatest impact across the lifespan on children, women of childbearing age, and pregnant women and their unborn children, not only because of their vulnerability during development, but also because of their subsequent longevity. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is a highly instructive, perhaps extreme, example of what happens with recent, rapid urbanization. It is the coldest capital city on Earth, where average ambient temperatures routinely fall below -40°C/F between November and February. During the cold winter period, more than 200,000 "Gers" (traditional felt-lined dwellings) in the "Ger district" burn over 600,000 tons of coal for domestic heating (>3 tons each). Thus, outdoor ambient particulate levels frequently exceed 100 times the WHO-recommended safety level for sustained periods of time, and drive the majority of personal particulate matter exposure. Indoor levels of exposure are somewhat lower in this setting because Gers are equipped with chimneys. Major adverse health impacts that we have documented in the Ger districts include the following: respiratory diseases among those between 1 and 59 years of age and cardiac diseases in those over 60; alarming increases in lung cancer rates in females are also beginning to emerge; and fertility and subsequent successful completion of term pregnancy falls by up to half during the winter pollution season, while early fetal death rises by fourfold. However, the World Bank has intervened with a Ger stove replacement project that has progressively reduced winter pollution by about 30% over the past 5 years, and this has been accompanied by an increase in mean term birth weight of up to 100g. Each incremental decrement in air pollution clearly has beneficial effects on pregnancy, which are likely to have the greatest positive health and macroeconomic impact across the lifespan. However, innovative policies and solutions are clearly needed to eliminate coal heating in Gers and thus further reduce the markedly negative health impact of this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel industry is a major contributor to emissions of CO 2 and key air pollutants. Reducing air pollution has since long been a policy priority in China. Reducing CO 2 emissions has more recently also become a key priority partially manifested through the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Although there are often synergies between reducing CO 2 emissions and air pollution, it may have implications for the geographical location if one is prioritized over the other, with subsequent effects on local economies and overall policy efficiency. Therefore, we build a top-down optimization model to assess the provincial allocation of steel production, air pollution impact and the cost for meeting the target of peaking CO 2 emissions in 2025 and reducing them by 30% in 2030. This short-term reduction target can be regarded as the first steps for China's steel industry to meet the national net zero target and the Pairs agreement. We analyze a scenario to minimize air pollution impact and compare this with a scenario to minimize CO 2 mitigation costs. The results show that it is possible to peak CO 2 emissions in 2025 and reduce them by 30% in 2030 but the resulting scrap demand requires increased quality scrap collection or imports. The total cost for different scenarios is similar but optimizing on abatement cost leads to lower cumulative CO 2 emissions 2021–2030 compared to optimizing on pollution impact. If reducing pollution impact is the main objective, it leads to 22–26% lower pollution impact than when optimizing on abatement costs, and less primary production in densely populated areas. This implies that policy must handle trade-offs between cost optimal mitigation and pollution impact, as well as effects on local economies. Policy must also balance the accelerated introduction of Electric Arc Furnaces while simultaneously reducing overcapacity in primary production. • Chinese steel industry can peak emissions in 2025 and reduce them by 30% in 2030. • Scrap availability is the main constraint for reducing emissions by 30% in 2030. • The choice of strategy affects where future production will be located. • Increasing shares of EAF and reducing overcapacity should be balanced. • 122 Mt BF-BOF capacity should be phased-out from 2020 to 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]