Impacts of air pollutants from rural Chinese households under the rapid residential energy transition.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31363099.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11453-w and PMC identifier 6667435.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Rural residential energy consumption in China is experiencing a rapid transition towards clean energy, nevertheless, solid fuel combustion remains an important emission source. Here we quantitatively evaluate the contribution of rural residential emissions to PM<sub>2.5</sub> (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) and the impacts on health and climate. The clean energy transitions result in remarkable reductions in the contributions to ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub>, avoiding 130,000 (90,000-160,000) premature deaths associated with PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure. The climate forcing associated with this sector declines from 0.057 ± 0.016 W/m<sup>2</sup> in 1992 to 0.031 ± 0.008 W/m<sup>2</sup> in 2012. Despite this, the large remaining quantities of solid fuels still contributed 14 ± 10 μg/m<sup>3</sup> to population-weighted PM<sub>2.5</sub> in 2012, which comprises 21 ± 14% of the overall population-weighted PM<sub>2.5</sub> from all sources. Rural residential emissions affect not only rural but urban air quality, and the impacts are highly seasonal and location dependent.
Medical subject headings
- Air Pollutants
- Air Pollution, Indoor
- Energy-Generating Resources