The reallocation effect of China's provincial power transmission and trade on regional heavy metal emissions

Wendong Wei; Zengcheng Xin; Yong Geng; Jiashuo Li; Mingtao Yao; Yaqin Guo; Pengfei Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102529

The reallocation effect of China's provincial power transmission and trade on regional heavy metal emissions

iScience. 2021 May 11;24(6):102529. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102529. eCollection 2021 Jun 25.

Authors

Wendong Wei^{1

2

3}, Zengcheng Xin⁴, Yong Geng^{1

2

3}, Jiashuo Li^{5

6}, Mingtao Yao⁷, Yaqin Guo⁸, Pengfei Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
² SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
³ China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
⁴ Business School, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China.
⁵ Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China.
⁶ School of Business, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, PR China.
⁷ Academy of Macroeconomic Research, National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing 100038, China.
⁸ School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.

Abstract

Coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) are key point sources to atmospheric heavy metal (HM) emissions in China. Unevenly distributed CFPPs lead to large-scale interregional power transmission, as well as corresponding environmental emissions transfer. However, the effect of power transmission on HM reallocation remains poorly understood. Here, we traced HM (including Hg, As, Se, Pb, Cd, and Cr) emission flows through electricity transmission and regional trade and calculated China's multi-perspective electricity-related HM emissions from 2010 to 2015. Results show that in 2015, power transmission and regional trade caused 226.5 t (14% of total emissions) and 453.6 t (28%) of HM emission flows, respectively, leading to great differences in provincial HM emissions under different perspectives (e.g., Beijing's consumption-based emission was 15.5 times higher than the city's production-based emission in 2015). Our study provides valuable insights for fairly allocating provincial HM emission reduction responsibility and formulating synergistic emission mitigation strategies among regions.