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China's response to the air pollution shock

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 306–309 (2014)Cite this article

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Faced with serious air pollution, China is aggressively reshaping its energy system, building on recent progress with renewables and on available supplies of gas. This should help contain global warming and provide new impetus to climate change negotiations.

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Figure 1: CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel use and cement production for selected countries and regions.
Figure 2: China's actual and projected energy consumption by fuel type during the period 1980–2020.
Figure 3: Natural gas infrastructure in China.
Figure 4: Lifecycle PM2.5 emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for selected fuel sources used in power generation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge support for the underlying research from the Australia China Natural Gas Technology Partnership Fund and from the Australian Government under the programme 'Shaping an International Solution to Climate Change'. We are deeply grateful to Jiang Kejun for invaluable advice and to Margarita Kumnick for excellent support. None of these parties are responsible for the views expressed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria Institute for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, 8001, Victoria, Australia

    Peter Sheehan, Enjiang Cheng, Alex English & Fanghong Sun

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  1. Peter Sheehan
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  2. Enjiang Cheng
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  4. Fanghong Sun
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Correspondence to Peter Sheehan.

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Sheehan, P., Cheng, E., English, A. et al. China's response to the air pollution shock. Nature Clim Change 4, 306–309 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2197

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