Tackling Coal-Driven Air Pollution in China and India

According to the Asian Development Bank, the People’s Republic of China will see the largest investment in the power sector, accounting for 54 per cent of the total investment required under the NDCs. [...] This compares to 4 GtCO2 in India and 0.8 GtCO2 in Indonesia (Zhai, Mo, & Rawlins, 2018) Although the implementation of NDCs is expected to drive down the share of fossil fuels overall, coal is still expected to play quite a significant role in the power mix of Asian countries. [...] Some policies, such as the Work Program to Strengthen Air Pollution Prevention in the Energy Industry and the Coal-Fired Electricity Energy Saving, Emission Reduction, and Upgrade and Transformation Action Plan (2014–2020), explicitly address the topics of air quality and emission reductions. [...] The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which estimates the cost of the externalities associated with the use of fossil fuels, puts the total value of subsidies in China in 2018 at USD 1.42 trillion (post-tax). [...] The results displayed in the table are the ones for the optimal scenario, indicated in the table.