Impacts of the scattered coal consumption on PM2.5 pollution in China

This study uses a dataset of PM2.5 concentration in 340 cities across China from 2000 to 2012 combined with data on the distribution of coal consumption in 30 provinces of the Chinese mainland to investigate the different impacts of centralized and scattered coal consumption on PM2.5 pollution. It then adopts a time-varying coefficient regression model to estimate the dynamic effects of scattered and centralized coal consumption control policies. Finally, subsample and instrumental variable regressions are used to confirm the above conclusions. The empirical results show that China’s centralized coal treatment policy has significantly reduced PM2.5 concentration, while the impacts of scattered coal consumption have become increasingly prominent. The policy implication of this study is that the focus of Chinese PM2.5 pollution control policy should be on controlling overall coal consumption and the treatment of scattered coal consumption should be the top priority. [Display omitted] •Impacts of centralized and scattered coal use on PM2.5 pollution are different.•PM2.5 induced by unit scattered coal is 2.45 times than that of centralized coal.•China’s centralized coal management policy has achieved remarkable results.•The government should pay more attention to scattered coal management.