Unified account of gas pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions: Chinese transportation 1978–2004

To facilitate the aggregation of both quantity and quality of waste emissions, the concept of chemical exergy combining the first and second laws of thermodynamics is introduced for a unified account of gas pollutants and greenhouse gases, by a case study for the Chinese transportation system 1978–2004 with main gas pollutants of NO, SO2, CO and main greenhouse gases of CO2 and CH4. With chemical exergy emission factors concretely estimated, the total emission as well as emission intensity by exergy of the overall transportation system and of its four modes of highways, railways, waterways and civil aviation are accounted in full detail and compared with those by the conventionally prevailing metrics of mass, with essential implications for environmental policy making.