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The current top-down method for calculating carbon emissions in the building sector erroneously includes carbon emissions from charging new energy vehicles (NEVs). This error is particularly concerning as the number of NEVs is expected to rise significantly in the future, thereby exacerbating the negative impact on the formulation of effective carbon reduction policies. This study analyzes carbon emissions in Beijing's building sector from 2011 to 2020 and estimates NEV-related indirect emissions from 2015 to 2020. Findings show that electricity consumption is the primary energy source in Beijing's building sector, increasing electricity-related carbon emissions from 63.36 % to 67.18 % of the total. Additionally, the indirect carbon emissions from NEVs have exhibited a steady increase from 208,800 tons in 2015 to 1.18 million tons in 2020, with their contribution to the overall carbon emissions from buildings escalating from 0.27 % to 1.44 %. Intriguingly, the study uncovers that private new energy cars do not significantly differ from conventional private fuel passenger cars in terms of their indirect carbon emissions. The findings of this study are expected to inform the development of accurate carbon emission estimation strategies in Beijing's building sector and facilitate the formulation of effective policies in the future. • Energy consumption of charging NEVs deducted from the building sector. • Carbon emission factors of electricity and heat in Beijing were reported. • Urban residential building has the greatest carbon emission reduction potential. • Energy use intensity is crucial for carbon reduction in residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing benefits from the promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) in the improvement of road tailpipe emissions; these emissions are caused by internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and reduce the surrounding environmental quality. When analyzing the electricity grid, upstream emissions of EVs in Beijing can be tracked back to Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. This study investigates the inharmonious mechanism of emission reduction to promote EVs in Beijing and Northern China based on 6 scenarios and 42 real EVs. Because there is a neighbor effect, Beijing only accounts for 34%, 34%, 41%, and 35% of the total CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions, respectively. Although the local CO 2 , NO x , and PM 2.5 emissions can be easily reduced (as long as the conversion of "coal to gas" plan is realized), it is difficult to achieve emission reductions of NO x and SO 2 without increasing the clean electricity generation mix in Shanxi and Inner Mongolia at the total emission level. However, there is still a large reduction potential of EVs themselves due to an increasingly clean electricity mix in Beijing, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Beijing local CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions can be reduced by 86.92%, 98.79%, 99.98% and 99.94%, respectively, and a total reduction of 78.43% of CO 2 , 93.83% of NO x , 97.85% of SO 2 and 99.26% of PM 2.5 emissions is possible. Compared with the corresponding ICEV, an EV of 18 kWh/100 km starts to reduce Beijing local CO 2 , NO x and PM 2.5 emissions in scenario 1, 3 and 1, respectively, while the SO 2 emissions cannot be reduced. However, the total CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions can be reduced in scenario 2, 5, 5, and 1, respectively. A sensitivity analysis shows that the promotion of EVs can reduce Beijing local CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions by 125.568–238.960 g/km, 0.059–0.113 g/km, −0.00003 - - 0.00007 g/km and 0.034–0.065 g/km, respectively. In addition, the total CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 reduction in emissions can be 132.883–253.757 g/km, 0.189–0.361 g/km, 0.299–0.569 g/km and 0.053–0.101 g/km, respectively. Image 1 • The inharmonious mechanism of the upstream emissions of EVs has been studied. • Just 34%, 34%, 41%, and 35% of the total CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emit in Beijing. • The CO 2 , NO x , and PM 2.5 emissions are reduced in scenario 1, 3 and 1 for Beijing. • The total CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions are reduced in scenario 2, 5, 5, and 1. • The SO 2 and NO x emissions are reduced when the proportion of coal-based electricity drops to 0.54. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]