Regional co-control plan for local air pollutants and CO2 reduction: Method and practice

Abstract Improving air quality and at the same time mitigating climate change, has become a focal point around the world, especially for emerging countries like China. In the current government administration in China, the plans for local air pollutants and CO 2 reduction are made separately and rely heavily on end-of-pipe measures. This type of stopgap strategy falls short of cost-effectiveness and reduction potential. Alternatively, a co-control planning method involving multi-pollutant co-reduction measures and least-cost optimization is proposed as a substitute solution. With a case study in Urumqi in Northwestern China, it is demonstrated that current local air pollutants and CO 2 reduction plans are either too expensive due to overlapped finance budget and overuse of end-of-pipe measures or sometimes counter-affect each other. To use the proposed method to make an improvement, co-control measure options are subsequently reviewed and screened using a co-control effects coordinate system and an indicator of unit cost of pollutant reduction. The co-control plan can then be designed with a linear programing method. To evaluate the economic feasibility of the co-control plan, a cost-benefit analysis is conducted. The results indicate that the co-control plan has an obvious advantage over the current plan in terms of multi-pollutant co-reduction and cost effectiveness. A sensitivity analysis verifies the robustness of the co-control plan approach. This approach could serve as an effective way of simultaneous reduction of local air pollutants and CO 2 with least cost. It is particularly useful for rapidly growing countries like China where both local air pollutants and CO 2 emissions are very high. The co-control plan strategy can provide important environmental plan and decision making support.