@article{luo_garcia-menendez_lin_he_johnson_2023, title={Accelerating China's power sector decarbonization can save lives: integrating public health goals into power sector planning decisions}, volume={18}, ISSN={["1748-9326"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf84b}, DOI={10.1088/1748-9326/acf84b}, abstractNote={Abstract
               China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter in 2022, aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The power sector will play a major role in this decarbonization process due to its current reliance on coal. Prior studies have quantified air quality co-benefits from decarbonization or investigated pathways to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. However, few have jointly assessed the potential impacts of accelerating decarbonization on electric power systems and public health. Additionally, most analyses have treated air quality improvements as co-benefits of decarbonization, rather than a target during decarbonization. Here, we explore future energy technology pathways in China under accelerated decarbonization scenarios with a power system planning model that integrates carbon, pollutant, and health impacts. We integrate the health effects of power plant emissions into the power system decision-making process, quantifying the public health impacts of decarbonization under each scenario. We find that compared with a reference decarbonization pathway, a stricter cap (20% lower emissions than the reference pathway in each period) on carbon emissions would yield significant co-benefits to public health, leading to a 22% reduction in power sector health impacts. Although extra capital investment is required to achieve this low emission target, the value of climate and health benefits would exceed the additional costs, leading to $824 billion net benefits from 2021 to 2050. Another accelerated decarbonization pathway that achieves zero emissions five years earlier than the reference case would result in lower net benefits due to higher capital costs during earlier decarbonization periods. Treating air pollution impacts as a target in decarbonization can further mitigate both CO2 emissions and negative health effects. Alternative low-cost solutions also show that small variations in system costs can result in significantly different future energy portfolios, suggesting that diverse decarbonization pathways are viable.}, number={10}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS}, author={Luo, Qian and Garcia-Menendez, Fernando and Lin, Jiang and He, Gang and Johnson, Jeremiah X.}, year={2023}, month={Oct} }
 @article{luo_garcia-menendez_yang_deshmukh_he_lin_johnson_2023, title={The Health and Climate Benefits of Economic Dispatch in China's Power System}, volume={57}, ISSN={["1520-5851"]}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05663}, DOI={10.1021/acs.est.2c05663}, abstractNote={China’s power system is highly regulated and uses an “equal-share” dispatch approach. However, market mechanisms are being introduced to reduce generation costs and improve system reliability. Here, we quantify the climate and human health impacts brought about by this transition, modeling China’s power system operations under economic dispatch. We find that significant reductions in mortality related to air pollution (11%) and CO2 emissions (3%) from the power sector can be attained by economic dispatch, relative to the equal-share approach, through more efficient coal-powered generation. Additional health and climate benefits can be achieved by incorporating emission externalities in electricity generation costs. However, the benefits of the transition to economic dispatch will be unevenly distributed across China and may lead to increased health damage in some regions. Our results show the potential of dispatch decision-making in electricity generation to mitigate the negative impacts of power plant emissions with existing facilities in China.}, number={7}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY}, publisher={American Chemical Society (ACS)}, author={Luo, Qian and Garcia-Menendez, Fernando and Yang, Haozhe and Deshmukh, Ranjit and He, Gang and Lin, Jiang and Johnson, Jeremiah X.}, year={2023}, month={Feb} }
 @article{luo_copeland_garcia-menendez_johnson_2022, title={Diverse Pathways for Power Sector Decarbonization in Texas Yield Health Cobenefits but Fail to Alleviate Air Pollution Exposure Inequities}, volume={56}, ISSN={0013-936X 1520-5851}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c00881}, DOI={10.1021/acs.est.2c00881}, abstractNote={Decarbonizing power systems is a critical component of climate change mitigation, which can have public health cobenefits by reducing air pollution. Many studies have examined strategies to decarbonize power grids and quantified their health cobenefits. However, few of them focus on near-term cobenefits at community levels, while comparing various decarbonization pathways. Here, we use a coupled power system and air quality modeling framework to quantify the costs and benefits of decarbonizing the Texas power grid through a carbon tax; replacing coal with natural gas, solar, or wind; and internalizing human health impacts into operations. Our results show that all decarbonization pathways can result in major reductions in CO2 emissions and public health impacts from power sector emissions, leading to large net benefits when considering the costs to implement these strategies. Operational changes with existing infrastructure can serve as a transitional strategy during the process of replacing coal with renewable energy, which offers the largest benefits. However, we also find that Black and lower-income populations receive disproportionately higher air pollution damages and that none of the examined decarbonization strategies mitigate this disparity. These findings suggest that additional interventions are necessary to mitigate environmental inequity while decarbonizing power grids.}, number={18}, journal={Environmental Science & Technology}, publisher={American Chemical Society (ACS)}, author={Luo, Qian and Copeland, Brenna and Garcia-Menendez, Fernando and Johnson, Jeremiah X.}, year={2022}, month={Sep}, pages={13274–13283} }