Exposure to mercury poses significant risks to the health of humans and wildlife. Globally, coal-fired power plant (CFPP) is a major source of mercury emissions, with China being the largest contributor to global atmospheric mercury. As a signatory country of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, China is developing its National Implementation Plan on Mercury Control, which gives priority to control of mercury emissions from CFPPs. While social benefits play an important role in designing environmental policies in China, the potential public health and economic benefits of mercury control in the nation are not yet understood, mainly due to the scientific challenges to trace mercury’s emissions-to-impacts path. Moreover, little is known about the potential benefits for the neighboring countries in East Asia resulted from China’s mercury control. This study evaluates the health and economic benefits for China and neighboring countries in East Asia from mercury reductions from China’s CFPPs. Four representative mercury control policy scenarios are analyzed, and the evaluation is explicitly conducted following the policies-to-impacts path under each policy scenario. We link a global atmospheric model to health impact assessment and economic valuation models to estimate economic gains for China and its three neighboring countries (Japan, South Korea and North Korea) from avoided mercury-related adverse health outcomes under the four emission control scenarios, and also take into account the key uncertainties in the policies-to-impacts path. Under the most stringent control scenario, the cumulative benefit of the mercury reduction by 2030 is projected to be $430 billion for the four countries together (the 95% confidence interval is $102-903 billion, in 2010 USD). Our findings suggest that although China is the biggest beneficiary of the mercury reduction in CFPPs, neighboring countries including Japan, South Korea and North Korea can also benefit (~7% of the total benefits) from China’s mercury reduction.

Les gazoles, carburant automobile préféré des français, sont « additivés » afin de permettre leur utilisation en hiver. Les n-paraffines présentes dans ces gazoles cristallisent en effet à basse température. Ces cristaux peuvent alors entraîner le colmatage des filtres protecteurs situés en amont du moteur. Des polymères à base d'éthylène, notamment les copolymères éthylène-acétate de vinyle (EVA), sont utilisés pour abaisser la température à laquelle les problématiques de filtration adviennent. Un nouveau procédé de copolymérisation radicalaire d'éthylène et d'acétate de vinyle, à plus basse pression et à plus basse température, que le procédé industriel actuel, a été développé au cours de cette thèse. Une grande variété d'EVA a ainsi été obtenue. Ils présentent des caractéristiques structurelles et une efficacité, pour le traitement des gazoles, similaires aux EVA commerciaux. Ce procédé a, par ailleurs, permis la synthèse d'autres co- et terpolymères de l'éthylène variant par la nature des comonomères polaires utilisés ou par l'architecture. Des modèles de copolymères EVA ont été également synthétisés par métathèse. La grande diversité d'additifs polymères à disposition combinée à des techniques d'analyse thermique et de diffusion des rayons X mises en oeuvre au plus proche de l'application (en particulier dans le gazole), ont permis de mieux appréhender leur mode d'action sur la cristallisation des n-paraffines. Les spécificités structurelles, des polymères, conditionnant leur efficacité pour le traitement de la tenue à froid des gazoles ont également pu être établies / The additivation of diesel fuels allows operating engines at low temperatures without filter blocking and thus fulfilling legal requirements. Ethylene based copolymers such as ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, made by free radical polymerization at high pressure (above 2000 bars) and high temperature (above 200 °C) are frequently used as middle distillate cold flow improvers (MDFI). A new free radical copolymerization process of ethylene and vinyl acetate in organic solvent media has been developed. This process gives access to polymers close to commercial MDFI additives under tremendous less drastic conditions (under 250 bars of ethylene and 70 °C). Thanks to this process, a wide diversity (variation of the nature of the polar unit, of polymer architecture…) of ethylene based polymers was obtained. Moreover, EVA model copolymers have been synthesized by metathesis. Thanks to these numerous and diverse ethylene based polymers combined with thermal analysis and X-ray scattering studies a better understanding of the operating mode of these additives in a diesel fuel has been achieved. The structural characteristics of the polymers enabling their effectiveness as diesel fuel cold flow improvers have also been established