Evaluation of economic loss from energy-related environmental pollution: a case study of Beijing

With the growth of energy consumption, energy-related environmental pollution has become increasingly serious, which in turn causes enormous economic loss because of public health damage, corrosion of materials, crop yield reduction, and other factors. Evaluating economic loss caused by energy-related environmental pollution can contribute to decision making in energy management. A framework for evaluating economic loss from environmental pollution produced during energy production, transportation, and consumption is proposed in this paper. Regarding SO2, PM10, and solid waste as the main pollutants, economic losses from health damage, materials corrosion, crop yield reduction, and solid waste pollution are estimated based on multiple concentration-response relationships and dose-response functions. The proposed framework and evaluation methods are applied to Beijing, China. It is evident that total economic loss attributable to energy-related environmental pollution fluctuated during 2000–2011 but had a general growth trend, with the highest value reaching 2.3 × 108 CNY (China Yuan) in 2006. Economic loss caused by health damage contributes most to the total loss among the four measured damage types. The total economic loss strongly correlates with the amount of energy consumption, especially for oil and electricity. Our evaluation framework and methods can be used widely to measure the potential impact of environmental pollution in the energy lifecycle.