The rapid growth of energy consumption in China has led to increased emissions of CO2. As a response, the Chinese government has proposed a series of carbon mitigation strategies, such as switching the production structure and implementing energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies in energy-intensive sectors. In this paper, an integrated assessment approach was developed by combining the Stock-based model, the China-TIMES model and the co-benefits analysis model. The approach was applied to China's steel sector to simulate the trends of energy consumption and air emissions (CO2, SO2, NOx, and PM10) during 2010-2050, under a reference scenario and three alternative carbon mitigation scenarios. The model quantified the air emission reductions, water conservation, and associated co-benefits during the study period. The modeling results show that by switching the production structure and implementing energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies, China's steel sector can achieve significant co-benefits of carbon mitigation, water conservation, averted mortality and averted morbidity. Despite certain limitations and uncertainties associated with the elements of the integrated assessment approach, the results demonstrate that substantial social benefits and health effects could be realized through carbon mitigation strategies in China's steel sector. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.