Co-effect assessment on regional air quality: A perspective of policies and measures with greenhouse gas reduction potential

Wanqi Chen; Haoyue Tang; Li He; Yan Zhang; Weichun Ma

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158119

Co-effect assessment on regional air quality: A perspective of policies and measures with greenhouse gas reduction potential

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 10;851(Pt 1):158119. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158119. Epub 2022 Aug 18.

Authors

Wanqi Chen¹, Haoyue Tang¹, Li He¹, Yan Zhang², Weichun Ma³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution Prevention (LAP3), Shanghai 200433, China.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution Prevention (LAP3), Shanghai 200433, China; Institute of Eco-Chongming (IEC), No. 3663 Northern Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, China.
³ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution Prevention (LAP3), Shanghai 200433, China; Institute of Eco-Chongming (IEC), No. 3663 Northern Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Policy Simulation and Assessment for Ecology and Environment Governance, Shanghai 200433, China. Electronic address: wcma@fudan.edu.cn.

PMID: 35987248
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158119

Abstract

Clean air policies have achieved remarkable air quality improvement in China for the last decade. However, as more importance was attached to climate issues and further improvement of air quality, policies with greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential were supposed to play a significant role. Here, we designed a conventional legislation pathway scenario (CLP) and an enhanced greenhouse gas reduction scenario (EGR), to estimate the co-effects of policies effective in GHG reduction on air pollutant control and air quality improvement in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region from 2014 to 2020, adopting a measure-specific evaluation method and an integrated WRF-CAMx model simulation. Results showed that: 1) With the implementation of enhanced measures with GHG reduction potential, emissions of SO₂, NO_x, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, VOC_s and NH₃ decreased by 16.4 %, 21.6 %, 18.6 %, 16.5 %, 23.9 % and 15.4 % in EGR scenario respectively, compared with CLP scenario. And the annual mean simulated concentrations of PM_2.5, SO₂ and NO₂ of the YRD decreased by 11.2 %, 15.4 % and 20.6 %, respectively. 2) The average 8-h maxima (MDA8) concentration of O₃ presented a slightly increasing trend under the impacts of measures with GHG reduction potential, which might be on account of the unbalanced control of NO_x and VOC_s, the two major precursors of O₃. 3) Based on the source apportionment analysis, major partition of total ozone in the four receptors in YRD was from regional transportation, rather than local formation. And the major sectors contributing to ozone were industry and transportation sector. This study quantitatively assessed the co-benefits of GHG-control-effective policies and specific measures on air quality improvement, which would help to provide implications for future policy-making to achieve air pollution and climate change co-control.

Keywords: Air quality; CAMx simulation; Co-effect; Greenhouse gas; Yangtze River Delta region.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollution* / analysis
Air Pollution* / prevention & control
China
Environmental Monitoring
Greenhouse Gases* / analysis
Nitrogen Dioxide / analysis
Ozone* / analysis
Particulate Matter / analysis
Policy
Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Greenhouse Gases
Particulate Matter
Volatile Organic Compounds
Ozone
Nitrogen Dioxide