Urban Cross-Sector Actions for Carbon Mitigation with Local Health Co-Benefits in China

Urban activities in China contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to local air pollution-related health risks. Co-location analysis can help inform the potential for energy and material exchanges... [ view full abstract ]

Urban activities in China contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to local air pollution-related health risks. Co-location analysis can help inform the potential for energy and material exchanges across homes, businesses, infrastructure and industries co-located in cities. Such co-location dependent urban-industrial symbiosis strategies offer a new pathway toward urban energy efficiency and health that have not previously been quantified. Key examples includes the use of waste industrial heat in other co-located industries, and in residential-commercial district heating-cooling systems of cities. To quantify the impact of these strategies:

(1) We develop a new data-set of 637 Chinese cities to assess the potential for efficiency and symbiosis across co-located homes, businesses, industries and the energy and construction sectors in the different cities. (2) A multi-scalar
urban systems model quantifies trans-boundary CO2 impacts as well as local health benefits of these uniquely urban, co-location dependent strategies. (3) CO2 impacts are aggregated across the 637 Chinese cities (home to 701 million people) to quantify national CO2 mitigation potential. (4) The local health benefits are modeled specific to each city and mapped geospatially to identify areas where co-benefits between GHG mitigation and health are maximized.

Results: A first order conservative analysis of co-location dependent urban symbiosis indicates potential for reducing 6% of China’s national total CO2 emissions in a relatively short time period, yielding a new pathway not previously considered in China’s energy futures models. The magnitude of these reductions (6%) was similar in magnitude to sector specific industrial, power sector and buildings efficiency strategies that together contributed 9% CO2 reduction aggregated across the nation. CO2 reductions mapped to the 637 cities ranged from <1% to ~40%, depending upon co-location patterns, climate and other features of the cities. The modeled reductions in fossil-fuel use yield reductions in PM2.5 emissions from <1% to 73%, depending on the city, and avoided annual mortality >40,000 premature deaths (avoided) across all cities. These results demonstrate the contribution urban symbiosis on decarbonization and health co-benefits.

The authors are grateful for support from NSF (Partnership for International
Research and Education award 1243535 and Sustainability Research Networks award 1444745).