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Climate Change Mitigation, Air Pollution, and Health Impacts in the Heating System

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 3470

Special Issue Editors

School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: global climate change economics and policy; energy–environment–economy systems simulation; low-carbon economy and low-carbon city development
School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Interests: energy–environment–economy systems simulation; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to achieve the climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5 or 2 °C has become even more pronounced and urgent in the post-COVID-19 era. Heating systems, which account for almost one-third of the end-use energy consumption in the residential sector and service industry and approximately 12% of global energy consumption, are expected to accelerate the low-carbon transition and play a vital role in mitigation. Meanwhile, the air pollution emitted from heating systems causes adverse health impacts, resulting in strong interactions between climate change, air pollution, and public health. The nexus provides opportunities to promote sustainability by incorporating air pollution control and health benefits in the design of a low-carbon transition in heating systems and climate polities.

This Special Issue aims to advance the field of human health impacts of climate change mitigation and explore cooperation strategies that can be implemented within the heating systems to facilitate both climate change mitigation and public health promotion. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Assessment or projections of the impacts of heating systems on GHG emissions, air quality, and human health at household, local, regional, or global scales.
  • Monitoring or modeling of the effectiveness of air pollution control and climate mitigation strategies in heating systems, such as heating electrification; district heating; efficiency improvement in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems; process optimization for combined heat and power (CHP) plants; optimized thermal insulation of facades; construction of green infrastructure; and energy transition away from fossil fuels.
  • Simulation modeling of climate change mitigation potentials, simulation-based optimization, technology selection, or cost-effectiveness analysis of mitigation measures in heating systems.
  • Analysis of the drivers heating demand and energy behavior change in residential heating choice.
  • Empirical evidence on the interactions between GHG emissions from heating systems, indoor/outdoor air pollution, and health impacts.
  • Assessment of the ancillary impacts of climate mitigation on air quality, human health, and other related socioeconomic dimensions, such as working productivity, energy justice, health risks of vulnerable groups, and social equity.
  • Decision-supporting tools concerning the development of air pollution control and climate policy, such as developing energy-technology mitigation roadmaps in heating sectors and defining guidelines for the design of green buildings and low-carbon heating systems.
  • Integrated strategies to promote synergies and balance trade-offs between public health, air quality, and climate policy, considering locality of building features, climate, building codes, socioeconomic factors, and customs.

Prof. Dr. Can Wang
Dr. Xinzhu Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • mitigation strategies
  • heating systems
  • air pollution
  • public health
  • premature deaths
  • energy-technology roadmaps
  • HVAC system
  • CHP plants
  • low-carbon buildings
  • building performance
  • energy efficiency
  • combined heat and power
  • process optimization
  • gas turbine combined cycle
  • heating electrification
  • thermal insulation
  • renewable energy
  • heating energy demand
  • district heating
  • healthcare cost
  • energy justice

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 2422 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Environmental Effects of the Clean Heating Policy in Northern China
by Siyu Chen and Hong Chi
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6695; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13126695 - 12 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2783
Abstract
This article estimates the impact of the “Clean Heating Plan in Northern China (2017–2021)” on air quality improvement. It is a significant policy to promote the clean heating rate in Northern China, while there is limited research into its effects. We used a [...] Read more.
This article estimates the impact of the “Clean Heating Plan in Northern China (2017–2021)” on air quality improvement. It is a significant policy to promote the clean heating rate in Northern China, while there is limited research into its effects. We used a difference-in-difference model to qualify the effects of this policy on the “2 + 26” cities. For this, we controlled factors such as economy, energy use, afforestation level, and weather. We found that: (1) the clean heating plan makes the “2 + 26” cities’ AQI index, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and O3 significantly decrease; (2) the concentrations of SO2 and CO increase. After adjusting the treatment group and control group, the results are still robust. We believe that the rise of SO2 is due to the shortage of natural gas supply in the 2017–2018 heating season in China, which led to the blockage of clean heating. Therefore, in promoting clean heating in Northern China, it is necessary to strengthen the estimation of heating demand, fully consider the energy structures of different regions, and implement the “reform by gas”. Full article
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