Co-Benefits Analysis of Coal De-Capacity in China

Guangyuan Cui, Shuang Lu, Donglin Dong and Yanan Zhao ()
Additional contact information
Guangyuan Cui: School of Marxism, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Shuang Lu: College of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Donglin Dong: College of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Yanan Zhao: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: China is the world’s largest carbon emitter and coal de-capacity is a policy with immediate and substantial CO 2 reduction effects. However, the carbon emission reduction and health co-benefits arising from the coal de-capacity are often ignored. Here, we assessed the carbon emission reductions and quantified the health co-benefits from coal de-capacity based on an analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the mine closures and phase out during 2016–2022. Our findings show that China had closed/phased out a total of 4027 mines with a total de-capacity of 8.75 × 10 8 t, spatially concentrated in Southwest and North China from 2016 to 2022. The coal life cycle emitted 1859 million t of carbon during the coal de-capacity. Importantly, 11,775 premature deaths were avoided during 2016–2022 due to reduced PM 2.5 exposure as a result of coal mining. This study highlights the significant effects of coal de-capacity on carbon reduction and health co-benefits in China and provides scientific evidence and data to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals and the ‘dual carbon goals’.

Keywords: coal de-capacity; coal phase out; carbon emission reduction; health co-benefits; coal mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/1/115/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/1/115/ (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:16:y:2023:i:1:p:115-:d:1305183

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 ().