Title: Health and environmental impacts of China's current and future electricity supply, with associated external costs

Authors: Stefan Hirschberg, Thomas Heck, Urs Gantner, Yongqi Lu, Joseph V. Spadaro, Alfred Trukenmuller, Yihong Zhao

Addresses: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. ' Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. ' Hamilton Medical AG, R&D, Via Nova CH-7403 Rhazuns, Switzerland. ' Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 615 E Peabody Dr., Champaign IL61820, USA. ' Centre d'Energétique, Ecole des Mines 60, bd. St.-Michel, 75272 Paris, Cedex 06, France. ' II 5.1, Umweltbundesamt, Postfach 33 00 22 14191 Berlin, Germany. ' Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy State Environmental Protection Administration PRCEE-SEPA, No. 1, Yu Hui Nan Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P.R. China

Abstract: This paper summarises the results of the assessment of health and environmental impacts, and the corresponding external costs within the China Energy Technology Program (CETP). China faces an enormous challenge, as it needs to meet the growing demand for energy in general and electricity in particular. Coal is, and will most probably remain for a long time, the dominant energy carrier in China, and its continued use causes enormous damage to public health and the environment. Such damage backfires on the rate of economic growth. As demonstrated in the present work, the total (internal plus external) costs of environment-friendly electricity supply strategies are significantly lower than those of the seemingly cheaper, but ||dirty|| and nonsustainable, strategies based on traditional coal technologies. As demonstrated by the detailed analyses carried out for the Shandong province, cost-efficient reduction of health and environmental damages, and of the corresponding external costs, can be achieved by implementation of scrubbers and other ||clean-coal|| technologies, together with fuel diversification and promotion of efficiency.

Keywords: public health; health impact assessment; environmental impact assessment; external costs; air pollution; China; cost-benefit analysis; coal; energy technology; electricity supply; life cycle analysis; LCA; sustainable development; natural gas; nuclear power; nuclear energy; power supply.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.2004.005906

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 2004 Vol.22 No.2/3/4, pp.155 - 179

Published online: 23 Dec 2004 *

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