Driving Forces of Air Pollution in Ulaanbaatar City Between 2005 and 2015: An Index Decomposition Analysis

Enkhjargal Enkhbat, Yong Geng, Xi Zhang, Huijuan Jiang, Jingyu Liu and Dong Wu
Additional contact information
Enkhjargal Enkhbat: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Yong Geng: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Xi Zhang: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Huijuan Jiang: China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201306, China
Jingyu Liu: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Dong Wu: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, is facing serious air pollution challenges—especially during the cold and long winter months—mainly due to fossil fuel combustion. This study investigates the socioeconomic drivers of the sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentration changes in Ulaanbaatar between 2005 and 2015 by applying the index decomposition analysis (IDA) method. Five socio-economic driving forces are considered in the decomposition analysis. All the driving forces contributed to more air pollution concentration changes in 2015 than in 2005, despite the decreasing trends of decomposition results for the period of 2010–2015. In general, economic growth, pollution intensity, and energy intensity significantly contributed to the changes of air pollutant concentrations, while energy structure and population growth had marginal effects. Finally, appropriate policy recommendations are proposed to the local government so that they can initiate feasible policies to effectively reduce air pollution, protect human health, and respond to climate change in Ulaanbaatar.

Keywords: air pollutants; driving forces; index decomposition analysis; SO 2; NO 2; PM 2.5; Ulaanbaatar city; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3185/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3185/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3185-:d:346039

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().