Air Pollution and Environmental Regulation in China
"Undoubtedly, China is losing its war against air pollution.'' These words come from a documentary film Under the Dome narrated by Jing Chai, a journalist concerning air pollution in China. This film illustrates the severe air pollution and criticizes the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.
Since the reform and opening up in 1978, China’s economy maintains a high growthrate every year. However, the rapid development brings huge pressure on environment,which causes ambient pollution problem in recent years. Environmental issues, especiallyair pollution, has become more and more severe nowadays.In 2016, only 84 out of 338 prefecture-level or higher cities attained the national standard for air quality.Particulate matter is the main driver of air pollution in China: PM10 and PM2.5 caused 36% and59% of pollution days in 2013, respectively. The average level of PM2.5in China is about 52μg/m3, which is more than twice of the WHO air quality standard. What’s worse, measurements by Beijing municipal government in January 2013 showed that highest recorded level of PM2.5 was at nearly 1,000 μg/m3. Traces of smog from mainland China has been observed to reach as far as California.
Air pollution is associated with negative health effects. A recent study finds that about 1.6 million people in China die each year – roughly 4,000 a day – from heart, lung and stroke disorders due to poor air quality. Long et al. (2014) estimate that about 98.6% of the total population are exposed to PM2.5 above the WHO’s daily guideline for longer than half a year.Particulate matter, especially fine particulate matter, has deleterious effects on health. Both short-run time series analysis and chronic exposure cohort studies have found strong correlation between PM levels and elevated morbidity and mortality. Among the sub-indicators of PM (PM2.5, PM10, and TSP), PM2.5is the most harmful one in terms of both toxicity and duration. This is because it can reach deep into human body and cause damage to both respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
In order to reduce air pollution, the Chinese government has made the decision to enforce stricter regulations. After the severe air pollution in northern China in 2012, the State Council issued an Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in September 2013. This plan aims at reducing PM2.5 by over 10% from 2012 to 2017. The most prominent government response is in Beijing, aiming to reduce PM2.5 by 25% from 2012 to 2017. As the capital of China, it is suffering from high levels of air pollution. According to Reuters, in September 2013, the Chinese government published the plan to tackle air pollution problem on its official website. The main goal of the plan is to reduce coal consumption by closing polluting mills, factories, and smelters and switching to other eco-friendly energy sources. According to the report of Ministry of Environmental Protection, air quality in China has been improved since the implementation of the Action Plan. In 2015, The average level of PM2.5 decreased by 23.6% compared with that in 2013. However, the air pollution is still serious, especially in winter.
Through the SUSI program, I hope to learn more about the air pollution problem in the U.S. and other countries. To be more specific, I would like to know what measures other countries take to deal with air pollution, including environment engineering technology and national environmental policy. Lectures and discussions in this program will be useful for me to better understand this critical issue and help me figure out how to design a cost-effective policy to tackle the severe air pollution problem in China.