Role of primary drivers leading to emission reduction of major air pollutants and CO2 from global power plants

Electricity production is a significant source of air pollution. Various factors, including electricity demand, generation efficiency, energy mix, and end-of-pipe control measures, are responsible for the emission changes during electricity generation. Although electricity production more than doubled from 1990 to 2017, air pollutant emissions showed a moderate increase or decrease, which was attributed to mitigating drivers such as increased clean energy use, improved power generation efficiency, and widespread installation of end-of-pipe control facilities. The absence of these mitigating drivers would have increased CO₂, fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), black carbon, SO₂, and NOx emissions in 2017 by 165 %, 403 %, 1070 %, 614 %, and 274 % than their actual levels, respectively. The improved electricity generation efficiency reduced potential CO₂, PM_2.5, SO₂, and NOx emissions by 30 %, 295 %, 119 %, and 52 % compared to actual emissions, respectively. Meanwhile, the installation of end-of-pipe facilities reduced potential SO₂ and PM_2.5 emissions by 34.7 and 4.0 Tg, respectively. Considerable differences in emissions among countries were found to be attributable to their differences in electricity demand and the implementation of local mitigating polices.