The evolution of China's provincial shared producer and consumer responsibilities for energy-related mercury emissions

The legally binding Minamata Convention implies that reducing mercury emissions has been an environmental mandate for China. As a fair and effective emission responsibility assignment framework is fundamental for mercury control policy design, this study measures China’s provincial shared producer and consumer responsibility for energy-related mercury emissions and draws the evolution trajectories. The results show that the total emissions decrease from 249.29 t in 2007 to 230.63 t in 2010, but rebound to 238.37 t in 2012. Meanwhile, under the shared responsibility (SR) scheme, mercury emissions of Shandong, Jiangsu, and Henan hold the top three positions. SR for mercury emissions of Zhejiang, Liaoning and Henan experience remarkable reduction, while that of Inner Mongolia and Hubei show a growing trend. Richer provinces generally have larger mercury emissions under consumption-based responsibility (CR) than that under SR, indicating these regions should emphasize more on the consumption-side mercury mitigation measures (e.g., regulating the capital investment and encouraging green consumption). On the contrary, more production-side mitigation policies (e.g., closing down small coal-fired power plants and advocating more efficient APCDs) should be conducted in Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shanxi. In conclusion, this study suggests that SR should be adopted as the benchmark for mercury reduction strategy, as it involves more participants to reduce mercury emissions along the supply chains.