China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter (GHG) and climate pollution from its transportation sector is rising – if it doesn’t cut emissions, the whole world fails on climate change. New Energy Innovation research illustrates the enormous benefits from adopting policies that would drive a faster switch to zero-emission vehicles in China, the world’s largest market for electric cars and trucks. Benefits include tremendous GHG reductions; hundreds of thousands of premature deaths prevented in China through cleaner air; cutting China’s petroleum demand by 97 percent by 2060; and up to 2.4 million new jobs created by transitioning to electrified transportation.
Our research quantifies the outsized health benefits of accelerating freight truck electrification in China – a first-of-its-kind analysis showing electric freight trucks drive 84 percent of overall health improvements. Eliminating pollution from conventional freight trucks yields greater clean air improvement because of their reliance on diesel engines, which produce exceedingly dangerous tailpipe emissions.