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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT * The following article is Open access

Reducing CO2 emissions by targeting the world's hyper-polluting power
plants

Don Grant^1, David Zelinka^2 and Stefania Mitova^3

Accepted Manuscript online 13 July 2021 * (c) 2021 The Author(s).
Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

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Article information
Author e-mails

dogr2184@colorado.edu

Author affiliations

^1 University of Colorado Boulder, Don.GrantII@colorado.edu, Boulder,
80309-0401, UNITED STATES

^2 University of Colorado Boulder, UCB 327 Ketchum 195, Boulder,
Colorado, 80309-0401, UNITED STATES

^3 University of Colorado at Boulder, UCB 327 Ketchum 195, Boulder,
Colorado, 80309-0401, UNITED STATES

Dates

Received 7 June 2021
Revised 7 July 2021
Accepted 13 July 2021
Accepted Manuscript online 13 July 2021

Peer review information

Method: Double-anonymous
Revisions: 1
Screened for originality? Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac13f1

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10.1088/1748-9326/ac13f1

Abstract

Combusting fossil fuels to produce electricity is the single largest
contributor to sector-level, anthropogenic carbon pollution. Because
sector-wide policies are often too unwieldy to implement, however,
some researchers have recommended reducing electricity-based CO2
emissions by targeting the most extreme emitters of each nation's
electricity industry. Here, we use a unique international data source
to measure national disproportionalities in power plant CO2 emissions
and estimate the fraction of each country's electricity-based CO2
emissions that would be reduced if its most profligate polluters
lowered their emission intensities, switched to gas fuels, and
incorporated carbon capture and storage systems. We find that
countries' disproportionalities vary greatly and have mostly grown
over time. We also find that 17% to 49% of the world's CO2 emissions
from electricity generation could be eliminated depending on the
intensity standards, fuels, or carbon capture technologies adopted by
hyper-emitting plants. This suggests that policies aimed at improving
the environmental performance of "super polluters" are effective
strategies for transitioning to decarbonized energy systems.

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[cc-by]

As the Version of Record of this article is going to be/has been
published on a gold open access basis under a CC BY 3.0 licence, this
Accepted Manuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY 3.0 licence
immediately.

Although reasonable endeavours have been taken to obtain all
necessary permissions from third parties to include their copyrighted
content within this article, their full citation and copyright line
may not be present in this Accepted Manuscript version. Before using
any content from this article, please refer to the Version of Record
on IOPscience once published for full citation and copyright details,
as permission may be required. All third party content is fully
copyright protected, and is not published on a gold open access basis
under a CC BY licence, unless that is specifically stated in the
figure caption in the Version of Record.

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