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Incorporating Health Cobenefits in Decision-Making for the Decommissioning of Coal-Fired Power Plants in China.

Jin LiWenjia CaiHaoran LiXinzhu ZhengShihui ZhangXueqin CuiYaxin ZhangChaoji CaoRuoshui SunCan Wang
Published in: Environmental science & technology (2020)
China's coal-fired power industry urgently needs deep decarbonization to meet the challenge of climate change. Regional air quality improvement and the health benefits can motivate efforts to achieve low-carbon goals. However, the health cobenefit per amount of carbon reduction may vary drastically across power plant units. The strategy of targeting more health cobenefits has been considered in designing an efficient carbon mitigation pathway, whereas this issue has not been analyzed at the unit level. In this study, an indicator called health benefit by carbon reduction (H/C) was constructed for each power unit to assess the relative potential of obtaining health cobenefits. The results reveal that the distribution of H/C values among units is extremely uneven: the first 1, 5, and 20% of the total carbon emission contributed to nearly 20, 40, and 70%, respectively, of the total health effects. The additional health benefits from H/C optimization were evaluated, and the decommissioning pathway of China's coal-fired power industry for achieving more health benefits was explored.
Keyphrases
  • public health
  • healthcare
  • mental health
  • climate change
  • health information
  • quality improvement
  • decision making
  • health promotion
  • gene expression
  • heavy metals
  • social media
  • wastewater treatment
  • air pollution