The unbalanced trade-off between pollution exposure and energy consumption induced by averting behaviors.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Behavioral responses to environmental risks create gains and losses. We use high-frequency datasets to elucidate such behavior responses against air pollution and find a "double-peaked" time pattern in reducing outdoor exposure and in increasing electricity consumption. Despite that one standard deviation increase in the Air Quality Index induces 2% less outdoor population and 6% more household electricity consumption at peak, most responses fail to match with the intra-day pollution peaks, implying ineffective exposure avoidance. We find an unbalanced trade-off between health benefits and energy co-damages. The behavior-induced change in annual residential power consumption (+1.01% to +1.20%) is estimated to be 20 times more than that in the population-based exposure (-0.02% to -0.05%), and generates 0.13-0.15 million more metric tons of citywide carbon emissions. Our results imply that by targeting peak pollution periods, policies can shrink the trade-off imbalance and achieve mutual improvements in exposure reduction and energy conservation.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Li, Q; Zhou, Y; Pizer, WA; Wu, L

Published Date

  • January 2023

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 26 / 1

Start / End Page

  • 105597 -

PubMed ID

  • 36654857

Pubmed Central ID

  • PMC9840935

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 2589-0042

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 2589-0042

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105597

Language

  • eng