Electricity production is a significant source of air pollution. Various factors, including electricity demand, generation efficiency, energy mix, and end-of-pipe control measures, are responsible for the emission changes during electricity generation. Although electricity production more than doubled from 1990 to 2017, air pollutant emissions showed a moderate increase or decrease, which was attributed to mitigating drivers such as increased clean energy use, improved power generation efficiency, and widespread installation of end-of-pipe control facilities. The absence of these mitigating drivers would have increased CO, fine particulate matter (PM), black carbon, SO, and NOx emissions in 2017 by 165 %, 403 %, 1070 %, 614 %, and 274 % than their actual levels, respectively. The improved electricity generation efficiency reduced potential CO, PM, SO, and NOx emissions by 30 %, 295 %, 119 %, and 52 % compared to actual emissions, respectively. Meanwhile, the installation of end-of-pipe facilities reduced potential SO and PM emissions by 34.7 and 4.0 Tg, respectively. Considerable differences in emissions among countries were found to be attributable to their differences in electricity demand and the implementation of local mitigating polices.

中文翻译：

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导致全球发电厂主要空气污染物和二氧化碳排放减少的主要驱动因素的作用


电力生产是空气污染的重要来源。电力需求、发电效率、能源结构和末端控制措施等多种因素导致发电过程中排放的变化。尽管1990年至2017年发电量增加了一倍以上，但空气污染物排放量出现适度增减，这归因于清洁能源使用增加、发电效率提高以及末端控制设施广泛安装等缓解驱动因素。如果缺乏这些缓解驱动因素，2017 年二氧化碳、细颗粒物 (PM)、黑碳、二氧化硫和氮氧化物的排放量将分别比实际水平增加 165%、403%、1070%、614% 和 274% 。发电效率的提高使潜在的 CO、PM、SO 和 NOx 排放量与实际排放量相比分别减少了 30%、295%、119% 和 52%。同时，末端设施的安装使潜在的 SO 和 PM 排放量分别减少了 34.7 Tg 和 4.0 Tg。研究发现，各国排放量存在显着差异，这是由于电力需求和当地减排政策的实施情况不同所致。