Alternative energy vehicle deployment coupled with decarbonizing electricity generation amplifies climate, air quality and health co-benefits in China

China is the world's largest carbon emitter and suffers from severe
air pollution. About one million deaths in China were attributable to air
pollution in 2017. Alternative energy vehicles (AEVs), e.g. electric,
hydrogen fuel cell, and natural gas vehicles, can help achieve both carbon
emission mitigation and air quality improvement. However, climate, air
quality and health co-benefit of AEVs powered by deeply decarbonized
electricity generation remain poorly quantified. Here, we conduct a
quantitative integrated assessment of the air quality, health, carbon
emission mitigation and economic benefits of AEV deployment as the
electricity grid decarbonizes in China. We find population-weighted annual
PM2.5 and summer O3 concentration can decrease as large as 5.7μgm−3 and
4.9ppb. Annual avoided premature mortalities and years of life lost
resulting from improved ambient air pollution can be as large as ~329,000
persons and ~1,611,000 years. We thus show that maximizing climate, air
quality and health benefits of AEV deployment in China requires rapid
decarbonization of the power system.