Today's episode looks at the topic of electric vehicles and their impact on both carbon emissions and urban air quality. China has the world’s largest market for electric vehicles, and it is the largest maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles manufactured worldwide. Hence, the environmental impact of EVs, even outside of China, often goes back upstream to China.
Our guest is Zhang Shaojun, Associate Professor at the Tsinghua University School of the Environment. His research examines the environmental impacts of emissions from road transportation systems on air quality, climate and public health. Before joining Tsinghua University, he was a Postdoctoral Associate at University of Michigan and Atkinson Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cornell University.
Shaojun and his colleagues have published two important papers on these topics this year. The first, in the journal PNAS Nexus, looks at the upstream greenhouse gas emissions from battery manufacturing as well as a regional breakdown of power sector emissions from EV charging. The second paper, in Environmental Pollution, looks at the impact of EVs on air quality, employing Tsinghua's CMAQ model to look at how EVs affect ozone and PM2.5, in particular considering the seasonal effects on air chemistry, which relates to the formation of secondary pollution. (Primary emissions refer to pollutants directly emitted from vehicles or power plants, whereas secondary pollutants are formed in the atmosphere through mixing of chemical precursors.)
For further reading:
Fang Wang, Shaojun Zhang, Yinan Zhao, Yunxiao Ma, Yichen Zhang, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “Multisectoral drivers of decarbonizing battery electric vehicles in China,” PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 5, May 2023, https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/5/pgad123/7159885.
Yiliang Jiang, Xinyu Liang, Shaojun Zhang, Zechun Hu, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “The future air quality impact of electric vehicle promotion and coordinated charging in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,” Environ Pollut., 1 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121928.
Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/EnvironmentChina
Episode Executive Producer: Anders Hove
[Chinese] Carbon markets and carbon asset management at Adelphi - with Chen Zhibin
[Chinese] The Beijing Energy Network swap market - with Nina Ning
Can China's Hydrogen Pilot Cities Help the Low-Carbon Transition? - with Arabella Miller-Wang
[Chinese] Sustainable Energy Professionals: Vestas - with Lai Shengling
[Chinese] Women in Sustainability: Yang Yifan of Oatly
Can China's SOE's lead the low-carbon transition? - with Erlend Ek of China Policy
China’s food system and climate change - with Sally Qiu and David Sandalow
Sustainable Finance for Seafood – with Qianming (Alice) Chen
International lessons for Shanxi province’s coal transition
The Guide to Chinese Climate Policy - with David Sandalow and Michal Meidan
The role of markets in China's energy security challenge - with Yuan Jiahai
Evolution of China's Green Power Markets - with Sharon Feng
China’s power shortages and solutions - with Xi Xi of iGDP
Rethinking plastics and marine litter - with Liu Xiao
Women in Sustainability Ep 2 - with Si Qing, co-founder of Eco Buyer (Chinese episode)
Green finance on the Belt and Road – with Christoph Nedopil-Wang
Certifying China: Seafood, palm oil, and tea standards - with Sun Yixian
Phasing Out Coal Power in China
Chinese women working in sustainability - with Si Jialing and Zhang Miao
Energy security and clean energy in 2022 - with Liu Yujing and Caroline Zhu
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Dairyland Frights
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL