Relative to the No Policy scenario, CO₂ emissions are significantly lower in Shanxi and Guizhou, major centers of coal consumption, in 2030. This corresponds to significant reductions in air pollution in China’s industrializing central provinces.

How the economic impacts of a national climate policy are distributed is ultimately a public policy choice that occurs in the design of the emissions rights (in a CO₂ emissions trading system) or revenue recycling scheme (with a CO₂ tax). The distribution of GDP impacts could look very different, for instance, if a progressive scheme required wealthy provinces to disproportionately foot the bill for the cost of the policy. Without a policy aimed at redistribution, Shanxi province as a coal exporter experiences the deepest reductions in its GDP under climate policy in 2030. While only the 4% Policy scenario is shown here, general trends are similar in the 3% and 5% Policy scenarios.