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Natural gas shortages during the "coal-to-gas" transition in China have caused a large redistribution of air pollution in winter 2017.
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; 12/8/2020, Vol. 117 Issue 49, p31018-31025, 8p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- The Chinese "coal-to-gas" and "coal-to-electricity" strategies aim at reducing dispersed coal consumption and related air pollution by promoting the use of clean and low-carbon fuels in northern China. Here, we show that on top of meteorological influences, the effective emission mitigation measures achieved an average decrease of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations of ∼14% in Beijing and surrounding areas (the "2+26" pilot cities) in winter 2017 compared to the same period of 2016, where the dispersed coal control measures contributed ∼60% of the total PM2.5 reductions. However, the localized air quality improvement was accompanied by a contemporaneous ∼15% upsurge of PM2.5 concentrations over large areas in southern China. We find that the pollution transfer that resulted from a shift in emissions was of a high likelihood caused by a natural gas shortage in the south due to the coal-to-gas transition in the north. The overall shortage of natural gas greatly jeopardized the air quality benefits of the coal-to-gas strategy in winter 2017 and reflects structural challenges and potential threats in China's clean-energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- AIR pollution
NATURAL gas
PARTICULATE matter
AIR quality
SCARCITY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00278424
- Volume :
- 117
- Issue :
- 49
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 147572931
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007513117