Environmental Justice Aspects of Exposure to PM2.5 Emissions from Electric Vehicle Use in China.
Plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) in China aim to improve sustainability and reduce environmental health impacts of transport emissions. Urban use of EVs rather than conventional vehicles shifts transportation's air pollutant emissions from urban areas (tailpipes) to predominantly rural areas (power plants), changing the geographic distribution of health impacts. We model PM2.5-related health impacts attributable to urban EV use for 34 major cities. Our investigation focuses on environmental justice (EJ) by comparing pollutant inhalation versus income among impacted counties. We find that EVs could increase EJ challenge in China: most (~77%, range: 41-96%) emission inhalation attributable to urban EVs use is distributed to predominately rural communities whose incomes are on average lower than the cities where EVs are used. Results vary dramatically across cities depending on urban income and geography. Discriminant analysis reveals that counties with low income and high inhalation of urban EV emissions have comparatively higher agricultural employment rates, higher mortality rates, more children in the population, and lower education levels. We find that low-emission electricity sources such as renewable energy can help mitigate EJ issues raised here. Findings here are not unique to EVs, but instead are relevant for nearly all electricity-consuming technologies in urban areas.
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Shuguang
S
Ji
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Christopher R
CR
Cherry
Department of Business Analytics and Statistics, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Wenjun
W
Zhou
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
Rapinder
R
Sawhney
School of Environment, Tsinghua University , Beijing, 100084, P.R. China.
Ye
Y
Wu
School of Environment, Tsinghua University , Beijing, 100084, P.R. China.
Siyi
S
Cai
School of Environment, Tsinghua University , Beijing, 100084, P.R. China.
Shuxiao
S
Wang
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
Julian D
JD
Marshall
D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D004560:Electricity; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D011210:Power Plants; D011634:Public Health; D059205:Renewable Energy; D012424:Rural Population; D012935:Social Justice; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
D052638:Particulate Matter; D001335:Vehicle Emissions