Energy Futures and Urban Air Pollution Challenges for China and the United States (2008) / Chapter Skim
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12 Findings and Recommendations
12 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 321-336
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From page 321... ...
and Chinese scientists and policy makers should be promoted through professional organizations, government support programs, and the National Academies in both countries, to promote joint development of energy and pollution control strategies.
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Findings An important lesson learned is that air pollution damage imposes major economic costs, through premature mortality, increased sickness and lost productivity, as well as through decreased crop yields and ecosystem impacts. Most cost-benefit analyses in the United States show that emission reduction programs provide much greater benefits than their costs (Chapter 3)
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. These require both local and regional emission reductions of directly emitted PM 2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO2)
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Emission inventories must continue to be improved in both countries, with greater effort placed on developing real-world emission factors that can be related to available activity data for area and mobile sources.
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This resulted from the realization that air pollution crossed political boundaries and that some states and localities were not sufficiently controlling their emissions. EPA maintains 10 regional offices to better interact with state and local agencies.
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Findings Energy efficiency provides benefits for air quality and energy security while reducing costs. Energy efficiency can provide gains similar to or greater than specific pollution controls and can reduce the need for new power generators.
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Still, the personal vehicle is seen as a status symbol in both countries and is an important industry to both economies; therefore policies will likely need to focus on limiting vehicle miles traveled or improving efficiency, as opposed to limiting ownership through vehicle taxes or permitting fees. Modes such as light rail can greatly improve transportation efficiency and reduce emissions from the transportation sector, but require large up-front investments and are much more difficult to retrofit into an existing transportation infrastructure.
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It is noted in the 2002 report, however, that other approaches, such as higher fuel taxes, tradable credits for fuel economy improvements, taxes on light-duty vehicles that fall below CAFE standards combined with rebates for vehicles exceeding the standards and/or standards based on vehicle attributes, such as weight, size, or payload -- might be more successful at improving fuel economy (Chapter 5)
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From page 329... ...
Findings Coal combustion will be a major component of energy production into the foreseeable future in the United States and China, owing to its abundance in both countries, which ameliorates energy security concern, its low relative cost and the longer lead time which would be required to develop a large scale alternate energy supply. Coal is primarily used to produce electricity, but it can also be used to c reate gaseous and liquid fuels as well as other feedstocks.
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However, coal-based liquid fuels have not demonstrated reduced emissions vis-à-vis alternative fuels such as biofuels. Harnessing methane from coal mines has a number of co-benefits: it provides an additional source of energy for residential heat and power, removes an air pollutant and potent greenhouse gas from circulation before it reaches the atmosphere, and decreases a major safety risk associated with coalmine accidents.
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Findings Renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, waste-toenergy, and biofuels constitute important, but not large, fractions of energy portfolios in both countries. Several applications, such as solar water heating and wind-generated power, are economical in the long term, but require large up-front investments and have benefited in many cases from various financial incentives (Chapter 7)
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Increasing public use is made of these forecasts to make personal decisions concerning exercise, travel, and health protection for susceptible populations. These forecasts are also used in the United States for intermittent pollution controls, such as domestic and agricultural burning restrictions and reduced driving periods.
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Findings Both countries have benefited from research, development, and technology transfer efforts in their universities, research institutes, and professional associations related to methods of energy production, pollution control, atmospheric processes, measurement systems, and simulation models (Chapters 4 and 8-11)
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e. Chinese cities need to develop local and regional technical training cen� ters and professional education centers, in order to build the capacity to operate and maintain pollution controls and advanced technologies.
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d. As China begins mandating specific control technologies, it will be useful for the two countries to enhance programs focused on technology transfer and capacity building.
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