Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

AIR POLLUTION

Small and bad

Nature Sustainability volume 1, pages 17–18 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

It is well known that electricity production from the combustion of fossil fuels is a major source of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Now, research shows that large generation plants are not necessarily the worst emitters.

Nevertheless, not all power plants are equally damaging in terms of air pollution. In this issue of Nature Sustainability, research by Dan Tong and colleagues6 shows that smaller and older plants emit a disproportionately large share of air pollutants given their energy generation capacity. To identify these ‘super emitters’, Tong et al. developed an emissions database per individual generating unit, covering CO2, and three air pollutants, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and PM2.5, for global fossil fuel and biomass burning power plants in 2010. Their newly developed global power emission database comprises the capacity of the power plants, fuel type, age, location and installed pollution-control technology in order to determine those units with disproportionately high levels of air pollutant emissions.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. 1.

    IPCC Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2014).

  2. 2.

    Energy and Air Pollution - World Energy Outlook Special Report (International Energy Agency, Paris, 2016).

  3. 3.

    Lelieveld, J., Evans, J. S., Fnais, M., Giannadaki, D. & Pozzer, A. Nature 525, 367–371 (2015).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. 4.

    Cohen, A. J. et al. Lancet 389, 1907–1918 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. 5.

    Lode, B., Schönberger, P. & Toussaint, P. Rev. Europ. Comp. Int. Environ. Law 25, 57–38 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. 6.

    Tong, D. et al. Nat. Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-017-0003-y (2018).

  7. 7.

    Energy Statistics and Balances of OECD and Non-OECD Countries: 1990–2010 (International Energy Agency, Paris, (2012).

  8. 8.

    Markandya, A. & Wilkinson, P. Lancet 370, 979–990 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. 9.

    Klimont, Z. et al. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 17, 8681–8723 (2017).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. 10.

    Zhang, Q., He, K. & Huo, H. Nature 484, 161–162 (2012).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. 11.

    Chen, B. & Kan, H. Environ Health Prev Med. 13, 94–101 (2008).

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Air Quality & Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), A-2361, Laxenburg, Austria

    Pallav Purohit

Authors
  1. Pallav Purohit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pallav Purohit.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Purohit, P. Small and bad. Nat Sustain 1, 17–18 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-017-0012-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-017-0012-x

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing