Strategies for Co-Control of Air Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases: Insights from an Integrated Emission Inventory in Shandong Province

Abstract

Air pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) share some anthropogenic emission sources. However, their source-category contributions, city-level emission magnitudes, and spatial patterns are not fully consistent. Therefore, universal co-control effects cannot be inferred solely from the existence of common sources. Based on the integrated emission inventory for Shandong Province in 2024, this study used 16 prefecture-level cities as analytical units to compare annual emissions, source-category contributions, city-level emission characteristics, and interspecies correlation structures for 10 air pollutants and 4 GHGs across eight source categories. Power and heat generation and industrial sources together contributed 86.84% of CO2 emissions. Industrial sources dominated SO2 and CO emissions and were the largest source of VOCs; mobile sources dominated NOx; agricultural sources dominated NH3, CH4, and N2O; and fugitive dust sources dominated particulate matter. These results indicate pronounced source-category and city-level differences as the basis for co-control among species. We find that there is a certain degree of synergy among different pollutants and greenhouse gases. The findings of this study may inform the design of synergistic reduction strategies for multiple pollutants and GHGs.