Can carbon emission reduction mitigate the PM2.5 air pollution? Evidence of the co-benefits from mitigating climate change

Changsong Wu, Dequn Zhou, Donglan Zha () and Jong Ho Hong
Additional contact information
Changsong Wu: China University of Mining and Technology
Dequn Zhou: Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Donglan Zha: Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Jong Ho Hong: Seoul National University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 9, No 31, 21053-21074

Abstract: Abstract The determination of the correlation between CO2 and PM2.5 emissions quantifies the co-benefits of air pollution reduction from the pursue of global warming mitigation. Using data on 186 countries or regions from 2010 to 2014, we evaluated the relationship between CO2 and PM2.5 from a global perspective. Based on the static and dynamic panel data models, we found a negative correlation between CO2 and PM2.5 emissions worldwide, but not a significant dynamic relationship between them. Through the regression clustering analysis, we found that there are significant differences in the relationship between CO2 emissions and air pollution across clusters of countries or regions. To understand this phenomenon, we evaluated the moderating effect of energy consumption on the relationship between CO2 and PM2.5 emissions and try to adjust this undesirable relationship. We found that an increase in oil and nature gas consumption would exacerbate the negative relationship between CO2 and PM2.5 emissions, while the consumption of renewable energy and coal, albeit in opposite directions, can strengthen their positive relationship. Therefore, we suggest to vigorously achieve a positive relationship between CO2 and PM2.5 emissions by an extensive use of renewable energy and curb oil and nature gas consumption globally. Furthermore, countries are left to choose climate club architectures based on the co-benefits according to their cluster’s characteristics.

Keywords: Carbon emission; Air pollution; Panel data model; Global perspective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03896-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:9:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03896-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03896-5

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().