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China’s civil aviation market has rapidly expanded, becoming the world’s second-largest. However, the air quality and health impacts caused by its aircraft emissions have been inadequately assessed. Here, we leverage an updated emission inventory of air pollutants with improved temporal and spatial resolution based on hundreds of thousands of flight trajectories and simulate aviation-attributable contributions to ground-level air pollution in China. We find that in 2017, the annual-average aviation-attributed PM2.5and O3concentrations were 0.4–1.5 and 10.6–14.5 μg·m–3, respectively, suggesting that aviation emissions have become an increasingly important source of ambient air pollution. The contributions attributable to high-altitude emissions (climb/cruise/descent) were comparable to those at low altitudes (landing and takeoff). Aviation-attributed ambient PM2.5and O3exposures are estimated to have caused about 67,000 deaths in China in 2017, with populous coastal regions in Eastern China suffering the most due to the dense aviation activity. We recommend that industrial and policy stakeholders expedite an agenda of regulating air pollutants harmonized with decarbonization efforts for a more sustainable aviation future.

China forecasts that a 14-fold increase in photovoltaic installations is needed to meet 2060 carbon-neutrality targets. In light of the fact that air pollution impairs photovoltaic performance, pollution control could reduce the installation requirement, but research has not yet taken into account the coeval impact of unfavorable meteorological conditions, which also impair performance. Here, we employ a coupled model to determine the impact of air-pollution control policies on China’s photovoltaic power output in the presence of varying meteorological conditions between 1995 and 2019. We find that the benefits of air-pollution control introduced in 2004 were only partially offset by unfavorable meteorological conditions (primarily in Central and South China) and resulted in solar-power performance improvement of 0.9%/decade from 2008 onward. Further analysis shows that solar-power output in 2020 was 1.7% higher thanks to air-pollution control and that more stringent air-quality targets could reduce the demand for photovoltaic installed capacity needed to meet the 2060 carbon-neutrality target.

China, the largest global CO2emitter, recently announced ambitious targets for carbon neutrality by 2060. Its technical and economic feasibility is unclear given severe renewable integration barriers. Here, we developed a cross-sector, high-resolution assessment model to quantify optimal energy structures on provincial bases for different years. Hourly power system simulations for all provinces for a full year are incorporated on the basis of comprehensive grid data to quantify the renewable balancing costs. Results indicate that the conventional strategy of employing local wind, solar, and storage to realize 80% renewable penetration by 2050 would incur a formidable decarbonization cost of $27/ton despite lower levelized costs for renewables. Coordinated deployment of renewables, ultra-high-voltage transmissions, storages, Power-to-gas and slow-charging electric vehicles can reduce this carbon abatement cost to as low as $−25/ton. Were remaining emissions removed by carbon capture and sequestration technologies, achieving carbon neutrality could be not only feasible but also cost-competitive post 2050.

Mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is widely viewed as essential to address climate change and requires a compelling case for ownership worldwide. While the manufacturing costs and technical capabilities of EVs are similar across regions, customer needs and economic contexts vary widely. Assessments of the all-electric-range required to cover day-to-day driving demand, and the climate and economic benefits of EVs, need to account for differences in regional characteristics and individual travel patterns. To meet this need travel profiles for 1681 light-duty passenger vehicles in China, the U.S., and Germany were used to make the first consistent multiregional comparison of customer and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission benefits of EVs. We show that despite differences in fuel prices, driving patterns, and subsidies, the economic benefits/challenges of EVs are generally similar across regions. Individuals who are economically most likely to adopt EVs have GHG benefits that are substantially greater than for average drivers. Such “priority” EV customers have large (32%–63%) reductions in cradle-to-grave GHG emissions. It is shown that low battery costs (below approximately $100/kWh) and a portfolio of EV offerings are required for mass adoption of electric vehicles.

Construction of carbon-intensive energy infrastructure is well underway under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), challenging the global climate target. Regionally abundant solar power could provide an alternative for electricity generation. An integrative spatial model was developed to evaluate the technical potential of solar photovoltaic power. The influence of impacting factors was quantified systematically on an hourly basis. Results suggest that the electricity potential for the BRI region reaches 448.9 PWh annually, 41.3 times the regional demand for electricity in 2016. Tapping 3.7% of the potential through deploying 7.8 TW capacity could satisfy the regional electricity demand projected for 2030, requiring an investment of approximately 11.2 trillion 2017 USD and a commitment in land area of 88,426 km2, approximately 0.9% of China’s total. Countries endowed with 70.7% of the overall potential consume only 30.1% of regional electricity. The imbalance underscores the advantage of regional cooperation and investments in interconnected grids.

Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) has been found to be an abundant organosulfur aerosol compound in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region with a measured maximum daily mean concentration of up to 10 μg per cubic meter in winter. However, the production medium of HMS in aerosols is controversial, and it is unknown whether chemical transport models are able to capture the variations of HMS during individual haze events. In this work, we modify the parametrization of HMS chemistry in the nested-grid GEOS-Chem chemical transport model, whose simulations provide a good account of the field measurements during winter haze episodes. We find the contribution of the aqueous aerosol pathway to total HMS is about 36% in winter in Beijing, due primarily to the enhancement effect of the ionic strength on the rate constants of the reaction between dissolved formaldehyde and sulfite. Our simulations suggest that the HMS-to-inorganic sulfate ratio will increase from the baseline of 7% to 13% in the near future, given the ambitious clean air and climate mitigation policies for the BTH region. The more rapid reductions in emissions of SO2and NOxcompared to NH3alter the atmospheric acidity, which is a critical factor leading to the rising importance of HMS in particulate sulfur species.

Abundances of primordial noble gases are lower for Mars than for Earth, but are higher for Venus. The data for Venus are attributed to implantation of solar wind in small preplanetary particles. Results for Mars are explained by escape of gas from planetesimals with radius between 5 and 100 km which form within the first 107yr of the Solar System. Volatile loss is associated with melting caused by short-lived radioisotopes such as 26Al.

An increase in the concentration of inorganic chlorine to levels comparable to that of oxidized reactive nitrogen could cause a significant change in the chemistry of the lower stratosphere leading to a reduction potentially larger than 15% in the column density of ozone. This could occur, for example by the middle of the next century, if emissions of man-made chlorocarbons were to grow at a rate of 3% per year. Ozone could be further depressed by release of industrial bromocarbon.

Oxidation of CS2and COS initiated by reaction with OH can provide a source of atmospheric SO2as large as 12 Mtonnes S yr−1and may represent the dominant source of SO2in remote regions of the marine troposphere.

Oxidation of organic material seems to represent a source for N2O in a wide variety of aquatic systems. Consumption of the gas, attributed to microbial respiration, is observed for a few specific anoxic environments.

Sources of atmospheric odd nitrogen and hydrogen are reviewed and their role m ozone photochemistry is discussed. A model, containing few adjustable parameters, gives good agreement with observed distributions of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone. Nitric oxide emitted by supersonic aircraft would lead to a significant reduction in the concentration of atmospheric ozone if the globally averaged source of NO should exceed 2 × 107molecules cm−2s−1. A traffic model projected by Broderick etal. for 1990 could lead to a reduction of about 2% in the column density of O3.Sources of atmospheric chlorine are discussed. It is argued that HCl should be the dominant form of atmospheric chlorine and that it is produced mainly from aerosols of marine origin. The atmospheric source strength is about 2 × 108tons per year according to Chesselet etal. and HCl may be removed by gas phase reaction with NH3. The role of chlorine compounds as a catalyst for recombination of odd oxygen is discussed and shown to play no major role in the normal atmosphere. Reactions of OH and HO2with O3may provide an important sink for tropospheric odd oxygen such that O3may not be a passive tracer for tropospheric motions.

The vertical column density of ozone observed in October over Antarctica has fallen precipitously over the past 10 yr. The concentration at Halley Bay (76° S 27° W), expressed conventionally in Dobson units (DU) (1 DU = 10−3atmos. cm = 2.7×1016molecules cm−2), has dropped from about 300 DU in 1975 to <200 DUin 1984 (ref. 1). Values in 1985 were even lower, comparable with the lowest values recorded anywhere on Earth2. We suggest here that the loss of O3in Antarctica may be attributed to catalysis of O3recombination by a scheme in which the rate-limiting step is defined by the reaction ClO+BrO→Cl+Br+O2. Concentrations of NO2must be low and heterogenous reactions involving particles in the polar stratospheric clouds must be an important element of the relevant chemistry. Industrial sources make important contributions to the contemporary budgets of both BrO and ClO and are likely to grow significantly in the future.

Physical and chemical processes which affect the equilibrium distribution of ionization in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are reviewed. Current models imply readily detectable ionospheres for all four planets and suggest that protons should represent the dominant positive ion. Attention is directed to the probable importance of dissociative ionization of H2 as a source of H+. A number of potentially important loss mechanisms for H+ are discussed including a possible reaction of H+ with vibrationally excited H2. Protons may be removed efficiently at lower altitudes by reaction with CH4 and this process may offer a simple remote means for location of the turbopause.

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