How Green Transition of Energy System Impacts China's Mercury Emissions

Abstract

China has long been committing to green transition of energy system to alleviate the heavy pollution; however, a quantitative analysis for its impact on air pollution has been lacking. To fill the knowledge gap, this study makes an initial attempt to reveal how green transition of energy system influences China's energy-related mercury emissions from both individual sector and supply chain perspectives, by using input-output (IO)-structural decomposition analysis and structural path analysis. Moreover, the aggregated power sector in the original IO tables are further disaggregated into seven types of power sectors to avoid the inherent huge uncertainty related to the aggregation. The results show that green transition in terms of emission factor control and energy mix adjustment has substantially benefited mercury reduction, while energy efficiency improvement has a much weaker effect. The largest consumption-based mercury reduction brought about by energy green transition happens in sector Construction, with an amount of 49.6 t. This study also finds that the green transition generally makes the production layers less mercury intensive, and the energy-related mercury emissions are more concentrated in the production layers. Policy suggestions for further enhancing energy green transition's mitigation effects for mercury emissions are comprehensively discussed.