Quantifying the health benefits of improving environmental efficiency: A case study from coal power plants in China

It is unclear whether improving the environmental efficiency (output per input) of coal power plants mitigate premature deaths due to air pollution. This study proposed an interdisciplinary framework based on a frontier method to quantify the health benefits of improving the environmental efficiency...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergy economics Vol. 121; p. 106672
Main Authors Nakaishi, Tomoaki, Nagashima, Fumiya, Kagawa, Shigemi, Nansai, Keisuke, Chatani, Satoru
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.05.2023
Subjects
Air pollution
Coal power plant
Data envelopment analysis
Environmental efficiency
Health benefits
Premature deaths
Coal power plant
Air pollution
Premature deaths
Environmental efficiency
Health benefits
Data envelopment analysis
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Summary:It is unclear whether improving the environmental efficiency (output per input) of coal power plants mitigate premature deaths due to air pollution. This study proposed an interdisciplinary framework based on a frontier method to quantify the health benefits of improving the environmental efficiency of power plants. A case study based on the input and output data of 316 coal power plants in China in 2010 was conducted to verify the functionality of the proposed framework. The main findings were as follows: (1) the environmental efficiency improvement of power plants can play an important role in mitigating health hazards caused by air pollutants; (2) the mitigation potential of premature deaths has spatial variations; and (3) the emission reduction potential of air pollutants is not correlated with the mitigation potential of premature death at the provincial level. These results highlight the importance of understanding the regional potential for health hazard mitigation as well as the crucial need to implement suitable policies for improving environmental efficiency. •Analytical framework for quantifying the health benefits of improving environmental efficiency•Interdisciplinary integration of data envelopment analysis and environmental systems approach•Case study based on input-output data from coal power plants in China•Estimation of premature death mitigation potential at the 45-square-kilometer grid level•Improving environmental efficiency of power plants is crucial for mitigating health hazards from air pollutants
ISSN:0140-9883
1873-6181
DOI:10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106672