ABSTRACT Both energy production and consumption can simultaneously affect regional air quality, local water stress and the global climate. Identifying the air quality–carbon–water

interactions due to both energy sources and end-uses is important for capturing potential co-benefits while avoiding unintended consequences when designing sustainable energy transition

pathways. Here, we examine the air quality–carbon–water interdependencies of China’s six major natural gas sources and three end-use gas-for-coal substitution strategies in 2020. We find

that replacing coal with gas sources other than coal-based synthetic natural gas (SNG) generally offers national air quality–carbon–water co-benefits. However, SNG achieves air quality

trade-offs. This indicates that more attention is needed to determine in which end-uses natural gas should be deployed to achieve the desired environmental improvements. Assessing air

quality–carbon–water impacts across local, regional and global administrative levels is crucial for designing and balancing the co-benefits of sustainable energy development and deployment

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SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS LOCATION-SPECIFIC CO-BENEFITS OF CARBON EMISSIONS REDUCTION FROM COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS IN CHINA Article Open access 29 November 2021 CLIMATE

CO-BENEFITS OF AIR QUALITY AND CLEAN ENERGY POLICY IN INDIA Article 14 December 2020 GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL REDUCTION PATHWAYS UNDER DIFFERENT CLIMATE MITIGATION STRATEGIES AND AMBITIONS Article

Open access 13 September 2023 DATA AVAILABILITY Data used to perform this study can be found in the Supplementary Information. Any further data that support the findings of this study are

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Y.Q. thanks the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University for her graduate fellowship and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

(IIASA) for her 2016 Young Scientists Summer Program fellowship. E.B. thanks IIASA for his Postdoctoral Fellowship funding. Y.Q. acknowledges earlier discussions with G. Kiesewetter, Z.

Klimont, J. Cofala and P. Rafaj. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Yue Qin Present address: Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA * Wei Peng Present

address: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA, USA AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Woodrow Wilson School of Public and

International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA Yue Qin, Wei Peng & Denise L. Mauzerall * International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Edward Byers & Fabian Wagner * Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA Kuishuang Feng * Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA Denise L. Mauzerall Authors * Yue Qin View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

* Lena Höglund-Isaksson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Edward Byers View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Kuishuang Feng View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Fabian Wagner View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Wei Peng View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Denise L. Mauzerall View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS Y.Q. and D.L.M. designed the study, Y.Q. performed the research, L.H.-I., E.B., K.F., F.W. and W.P. contributed data for

analysis, Y.Q., L.H.-I., E.B., K.F., and D.L.M. analysed data and Y.Q., D.L.M. and L.H.-I. wrote the paper. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Yue Qin or Denise L. Mauzerall. ETHICS

DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in

published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1–9, Supplementary Figures 1–10, Supplementary

References 1–53 RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Qin, Y., Höglund-Isaksson, L., Byers, E. _et al._ Air quality–carbon–water synergies and

trade-offs in China’s natural gas industry. _Nat Sustain_ 1, 505–511 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0136-7 Download citation * Received: 11 November 2017 * Accepted: 09 August

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