The underappreciated role of transboundary pollution in future air quality and health improvements in China

Xu, Jun-Wei; Lin, Jintai; Tong, Dan; Chen, Lulu

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 17

Research article

|

08 Sep 2023

Research article |

| 08 Sep 2023

The underappreciated role of transboundary pollution in future air quality and health improvements in China

Jun-Wei Xu, Jintai Lin, Dan Tong, and Lulu Chen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023-supplement

Data sets

Gridded datasets for population and economy under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways T. Jiang, B. Su, Y. Wang, J. Huang, C. Jing, M. Gao, G. Wang, Q. Lin, S. Jiang, S. Liu, and Y. Luo https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.01683

Global Burden of Disease 2017 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation https://gbd2017.healthdata.org/gbd-results/

Future baseline mortality rate projection International Futures https://www.ifs.du.edu/ifs/frm_MainMenu.aspx

CEDS v_2021_04_21 gridded emissions data S. J. Smith, H. Ahsan, and A. Mott https://doi.org/10.25584/PNNLDataHub/1779095

Model code and software

geoschem/GCClassic: GEOS-Chem 13.2.1 The International GEOS-Chem User Community https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5500717

Aneris: Harmonization for Integrated Assessment Models M. Gidden http://software.ene.iiasa.ac.at/aneris/

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Short summary

This study highlights the necessity of a low-carbon pathway in foreign countries for China to achieve air quality goals and to protect public health. We find that adopting the low-carbon instead of the fossil-fuel-intensive pathway in foreign countries would prevent 63 000–270 000 transboundary PM_2.5-associated mortalities in China in 2060. Our study provides direct evidence of the necessity of inter-regional cooperation for air quality improvement.