Air pollution reduction in China: Recent success but great challenge for the future

Abstract

China's rapid economic growth has caused severe air pollution, raising serious concerns about the growing evidence of its negative health, environmental, and economic impacts. Consequently, the Chinese government has implemented a number of policies and measures to reduce air pollution. Relying on published information over the last three decades in China, we analyzed trends in air pollutant emissions (SO2 and NOx) and concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O3). During the past decade, SO2 and NOx emissions had declined throughout China and concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 had considerably decreased in most cities, but average reported 90th MDA8 O3, M7, and AOT40 O3 for 31 capital cities showed an increasing trend between 2013 and 2017. Despite progress in air pollution reduction and an increasing number of “clear sky” days, PM concentrations throughout China remain higher than the World Health Organization guidelines, and urban smog and haze remain a major threat to human health and the environment. Thus far, significant emission reductions have occurred largely through robust administrative power, especially when emission reductions were tied to the performance evaluations and promotion of government officials. Similar to most already-industrialized nations, China is now shifting away from SO2-dominated to NOx- and O3-dominated air pollution. Existing technologies and improved operations of existing control equipment appear unlikely to achieve sufficient reductions in NOx and O3 pollution. Considering the complex relationship between O3, NOx, VOCs, weather, and socio-economic changes in China, it is necessary to increase research on impacts of increasing ozone on plants and to adopt novel technologies and implemented to further reduce air pollution to levels that will protect human health and the environment.