Co-benefits of CO₂ emission reduction from China's clean air actions between 2013-2020

Climate change mitigation measures can yield substantial air quality improvements while emerging clean air measures in developing countries can also lead to CO₂ emission mitigation co-benefits by affecting the local energy system. Here, we evaluate the effect of China's stringent clean air actions on its energy use and CO₂ emissions from 2013-2020. We find that widespread phase-out and upgrades of outdated, polluting, and inefficient combustion facilities during clean air actions have promoted the transformation of the country's energy system. The co-benefits of China's clean air measures far outweigh the additional CO₂ emissions of end-of-pipe devices, realizing a net accumulative reduction of 2.43 Gt CO₂ from 2013-2020, exceeding the accumulated CO₂ emission increase in China (2.03 Gt CO₂) during the same period. Our study indicates that China's efforts to tackle air pollution induce considerable climate benefit, and measures with remarkable CO₂ reduction co-benefits deserve further attention in future policy design.