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Quantifying China's iron and steel industry's CO₂ emissions and environmental health burdens: A pathway to sustainable transformation.

ABSTRACT: Assessing the iron and steel industry's (ISI) impact on climate change and environmental health is vital, particularly in China, where this sector significantly influences air quality and CO₂ emissions. There is a lack of comprehensive analyses that consider the environmental and health burdens of manufacturing processes for ISI enterprises. Here, we present an integrated emission inventory that encompasses air pollutants and CO₂ emissions from 811 ISI enterprises and five key manufacturing processes in 2020. Our analysis shows that sintering is the primary source of air pollution in the ISI. It contributes 71% of SO₂, 73% of NO _x , and 54% of PM_2.5 emissions. On the other hand, 81% of total CO₂ emissions come from blast furnaces. Significantly, the contributions of ISI have resulted in an increase of 3.6 μg m^-3 in national population-weighted PM_2.5 concentration, causing approximately 59,035 premature deaths in 2020. Emissions from Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia provinces contributed to 48% of PM_2.5-related deaths in China. Moreover, the transportation of air pollutants across provincial borders highlights a concerning trend of environmental health inequality. Based on the research findings, it is crucial for ISI manufacturers to prioritize the removal of outdated production capacities and adopt energy-efficient and advanced techniques, along with ultra-low emission technologies. This is particularly important for those manufacturers with substantial environmental footprints. These transformative actions are essential in mitigating the environmental and health impacts in the affected regions.

SUBMITTER: Wu W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11361861 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantifying China's iron and steel industry's CO2 emissions and environmental health burdens: A pathway to sustainable transformation.

Wu Weiling W Tang Qian Q Xue Wenbo W Shi Xurong X Zhao Dadi D Liu Zeyuan Z Liu Xin X Jiang Chunlai C Yan Gang G Wang Jinnan J

Environmental science and ecotechnology 20231212

Assessing the iron and steel industry's (ISI) impact on climate change and environmental health is vital, particularly in China, where this sector significantly influences air quality and CO2 emissions. There is a lack of comprehensive analyses that consider the environmental and health burdens of manufacturing processes for ISI enterprises. Here, we present an integrated emission inventory that encompasses air pollutants and CO2 emissions from 811 ISI enterprises and five ...[more]

PMID: 39221075

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Project description:China is the largest CO2 emitter in the world and announced that carbon peak and neutral targets will be achieved before 2030 and 2060, respectively. A retrospective analysis of past CO2 emissions and their drivers is important for the actions of peaking CO2 emissions before 2030 in China. CO2 emissions from energy use (coal, oil, and natural gas) and cement production from 2000 to 2020 were calculated first, and their drivers were decomposed into economic and population growth, energy intensity, and emission coefficient by logarithmic mean Divisa index (LMDI) analysis in this study. China's CO2 emissions increased nearly threefold from 3385 in 2000 to 10,788 million tonnes (Mt) in 2020, with a decline from 2013 to 2016. Coal was the major emission sector contributing more than 70% in most years, while natural gas emissions increased nearly 13 times from 53 to 723 Mt in the two decades, although its contribution only accounted for 6.7% in 2020. Economic growth was the major positive driver, while energy intensity reduction was the major negative driver of the emission increments by year and by the Five Year Plan (FYP). Emission coefficient reduction gradually became important due to its negative effect, especially in the 13th FYP, which offset ~ 30% of the emissions induced by economic growth. The projections of CO2 emissions in 2025, 2030, and 2035 could be 11,596 ± 582, 11,774 ± 621, and 11,401 ± 672 Mt, respectively, suggesting that China's carbon emissions could peak around 2030 with an increment of ~ 1000 Mt on the 2020 levels. Under the sustainable growth of the economy and population, it is possible to reduce the carbon peak value or achieve peak time earlier through the additional reduction of energy intensity and emission coefficient by technological progress and energy alternatives such as non-fossil fuels.Graphical abstractSupplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-022-02811-8.

Dataset Information

Quantifying China's iron and steel industry's CO₂ emissions and environmental health burdens: A pathway to sustainable transformation.

Publications

Quantifying China's iron and steel industry's CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and environmental health burdens: A pathway to sustainable transformation.

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