Impacts of electricity generation on air pollution: evidence from data on air quality index and six criteria pollutants

摘要

We estimate impacts of electricity generation (total power output and thermal power output) on air pollution (air qualityindex (AQI) and six criteria air pollutants), with a particular emphasis on industry and city heterogeneity. To identifythis relationship, we combine detailed monthly data on electricity production, air pollution, economy and weather for asix-year period in four biggest cities in China. Our fundamental identification strategy employs Ordinary Least SquaresRegression of panel data with city–month fixed effects and addresses confounding variations between electricity generationand economy or weather conditions. We find that one unit (100 million kwh) increase in power output is associatedwith a 0.3-unit (representing value) increase in AQI, nearly all of which is driven by increases in thermal power output. Wenotice a robust positive impact of increased electricity generation (specifically thermal power output) on PM_(2.5)and PM10,also positive relationships between increases in other power output (total power output minus thermal power output)and SO_2,NO_2,while changes in power output have no statistically significant effect on CO and O_3.The heterogeneouspollution effects of electricity generation are present in specific cities with different weather conditions. The results indicatethat a reduction policy in power industry differentiating among cities might enhance effectiveness by consideringeach city’s particular backgrounds, a previously overlooked aspect associated with pollution reduction policies.