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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:50:19am WEST

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Daily Overview

Session

Impacts and Damages of Natural Disasters
Location: B011
Session Chair: Sarah Meier, ETH Zurich

Presentation 2

(Un)intended Consequences of Extreme Heatwaves for Air Pollution and Its Social Cost: Evidence from the Power Sector in China

Pin Sun¹, Yu'an Wang¹, Yang Wang², Wei Dai¹, Qingchen Cao², Bowei Guo¹, Chenpeng Wang²

1: Renmin University of China, China, People's Republic of; 2: National Climate Centre

Discussant: Jude Bayham (Colorado State University)

Extreme heatwaves can undermine the efficiency of fossil-fuel power generation, amplifying air pollution and health risks. Using plant-level operational data and high-resolution weather data from China, we find that during the 2022 extreme heatwave in Guangdong Province, exposed plants experienced approximately 21.4% higher PM2.5 emission intensity relative to unexposed plants, an increase attributable to heatwave-induced efficiency losses. Coal-fired plants exhibited an additional 12.3% increase relative to gas-fired plants. Similar patterns are observed for other combustion-related pollutants. We estimate that heatwave-induced pollution from power-sector efficiency losses imposes an annual social cost of USD 4.21 billion in China, which could be reduced by USD 1.42 billion under a complete coal-to-gas substitution scenario. Looking ahead, under the high-emissions SSP5-8.5 scenario, which is associated with approximately 4.4°C of warming by 2100, annual costs in China could rise to USD 20.41 billion. The impacts are highly uneven across provinces, with coal-dependent and industrial coastal regions disproportionately affected. Our findings highlight how extreme heatwaves can amplify air pollution and health damages through an overlooked energy-sector efficiency channel, underscoring the broader societal costs of continued fossil-fuel dependence in a warming world.