Hidden Smoke: Air Pollution, Agrarian Change, and Governance Gaps in Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang was the early capital of the Laos PDR with national unification where the head of the state at that time was the monarchy, based on the Buddhist concept of centralization, and with the constitution based on Buddhist principles which originated from the belief that if the Lao leaders of any era were Buddhists, then there would be support for Buddhism and would bring prosperity and stability to Buddhism. Therefore, this research article aims to study the current condition of the Four Necessities of Buddhist Monks in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. After being registered as a World Heritage City. This was a qualitative study by studying both documented data and fieldwork interviews with knowledgeable groups, practitioners, and relevant groups, and then analyzing the data descriptively using relevant theoretical framework analysis. The study found that when Luang Prabang was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage City in 1995, Luang Prabang became a world-class cultural tourism industry city, and its Buddhist roots remained. There was a preservation of patterns of life, culture, traditions, and unique traditional beliefs that had been handed down since the ancestors of the locals. After being registered as a World Heritage City, under the change of cultural traditions in Buddhism through merit-making by offering the Four Necessities of a Buddhist Monk, there is a practice that is currently focused on convenience and speed. Most of them are offered by you or purchased from stores available in Luang Prabang, with the main objective still continuing to offer Four Necessities to escape misfortune and create merit both for yourself in the present and in the next life.

With the 40 years of rapid development, China has made extraordinary achievements in economy, but also accumulated a large number of ecological environment problems. Especially, a high incidence of air pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei（BTH）, which has high social sensitivity and concern, is the focus of China’s air pollution governance. At present, because of the lack of effective incentive mechanisms, the joint prevention and control of BTH’s air pollution is difficult to promote substantially. The mechanism of payments for environmental services（PES）is an important means of ecological environmental protection and a vital endogenous incentive for transboundary environmental governance. The absence of the basic study of PES for air pollution governance（especially the determination of payment standards）is one of the important reasons leading to the dilemma of joint prevention and control of air pollution in BTH. This paper establishes a CGE model of air pollution governance in BTH based on the Opportunity Cost Method（OCM）, modelling the effects of cutting industrial capacity on economic output and PM2.5 emission reduction by setting different sulfur tax shocks, and quantifying the payment standards for air pollution governance in BTH. Firstly, this paper puts forward the concept of theoretical maximum of payment standards” originally based on specific causes of air pollution in BTH; secondly, it provides the payment intervals that Hebei should accept under specific air quality objectives; thirdly, a complete framework of determining the payment standards for environmental services of BTH’s air pollution governance is proposed. This paper finds that: Firstly, cutting the industrial capacity of Hebei has great effects on BTH’s air pollution control; the PM2.5 emission reduction effect differs highly depending on industries, and the means of pollution control should be chosen precisely based on the structural differences of industries. Secondly, the theoretical maximum of payment standards” based on the hypothesis of Hebei’s governance alone can be used as the upper limit of the payment standards for BTH’s air pollution governance, and the lower limit can be determined by the theoretical maximum of payment standards” and the nominal” proportion of Hebei’s secondary industry; the point value” of opportunity cost under BTH joint governance can be used as the reference of the payment standards for air pollution governance in BTH. Thirdly, in addition to the above, we need to consider multiple factors such as functional orientation, economic disparity and so on to adjust and calibrate the specific compensation amount dynamically. This paper constructs a complete framework of determining the standards of PES for BTH’s air governance, which provides a theoretical basis and technical support to accelerate the substantive process of BTH’s air pollution joint governance, with important theoretical and methodologically innovative significance. The paper is of great policy significance for improving the ecological construction system and the air quality in BTH as soon as possible. It is also of great significance for air pollution governance in other key regions of China.

Science-policy interplay on air pollution governance in China

Air pollution governance in China and India: Comparison and implications

According to epidemiological studies, air pollution can increase the rate of medical visits and morbidity. Empirical studies have also shown that air pollutants are toxic to animals. Using data from 262 Chinese cities for the period 2005 to 2018, this study systematically investigated the spatial spillover effect and transmission mechanism of air pollution governance on urban labor productivity. In this study, we also explored the changing trend of labor productivity in China from a dynamic perspective. Additionally, we selected the air flow coefficient and environmental regulations as two instrumental variables of air pollution governance to effectively alleviate endogenous problems existing in the model. The results show that air pollution governance plays a significant role in promoting the improvement of labor productivity. The effect of air pollution governance on labor productivity in eastern cities is better than that in central and western cities, and its effect in developed cities is better than that in undeveloped cities. With the increased intensity of air pollution governance, its effect on labor productivity is also strengthened. Urban innovation capacity and residents’ health are important channels for air pollution governance in the promotion of labor productivity. Finally, this study proposes policy recommendations, such as implementing a joint prevention and governance mechanism, as well as improving air pollution prevention and government regulations.

Is the sky of smart city bluer? Evidence from satellite monitoring data.

Air Pollution is a cause of concern in the present world as it is not responsible for only deteriorating our environment but is associated with severe health risks to the human life as well. With the increasing levels of air pollution the burden of diseases on health has increased too in quite evident ways. A healthy environment is prerequisite for the well-being of all and hence handling this risk becomes crucial. Air pollution in Delhi is not a recent phenomenon rather a recurring case. There are several contributing factors to it which combines to make Delhi 'gas chamber'. This study focuses on the management of this risk, through the governance aspect which can contribute in making Delhi's air healthy. This is a qualitative research wherein case study method has been applied to understand air pollution governance as a means of risk management. Delhi which has multi-level governance has become the study area wherein the risk of air pollution is evermounting. This paper also investigates the case of air pollution and its governance in Delhi transversing into a public health emergency in the recent times, keeping public trust doctrine as the conceptual basis to look at governance. National Capital Territory of Delhi can be considered as a victim of the Air Pollution and its consequent impacts. The lack of integrated approach in Delhi for risk governance makes the governance process multifaceted and a challenging task. From this study it can be stated that emerging public health concern due to air pollution and its governance, have not kept an equal pace even with the backing of legislative measures and intervention of court of law. Right to Life and Right to a Healthy Environment are being violated by increasing air pollution levels in the city time and again. As the levels of air quality continues to be poor, good governance for reducing air pollution is need of the hour.

The 11th goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aims at making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, to which the rising city air pollution poses a severe challenge. Achieving this goal necessitates governing city air quality at large scale. However, the lack of interconnection among air quality modelling, multi-source data, pollution diagnosis and control actions impedes scalable and efficient governance of city air pollution. Here we present a design of digital governance to make full use of science and information techniques, so that information and decisions can be well generated and processed to form scientific prevention and control against heavy city air pollution. We implement the desired interconnection based on open-architecture big atmospheric environmental data system, which supports digitizing the workflow and dataflow of governance practices. Through the network of digital governance, those cities with limited resources and capacities can henceforth access data and expertise, such as model-based air quality forecast and data-based mitigation actions, to realize regional joint prevention and control of heavy air pollution. With a demonstration case for the Wuhan city in China using the Nested Grid Air Quality Prediction Modelling System (NAQPMS) developed by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we show how our design of digital governance would empower scientific control of heavy city air pollution and help achieving the SDG goal 11.

This paper takes the air pollution governance performance as the research object, establishes the evaluation index system of air pollution governance performance using the pressure-state-response (PSR) model, and uses the data of 11 prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi Province from 2014–2017 to carry out empirical tests. The results show that, in terms of indicator weights, the state and pressure categories have higher weights than the response category, further highlighting the importance of reducing pollution emissions rather than post-pollution treatment. Regarding regional comparisons, only a few regions show a good balance between “stress-state-response”, while most regions show a “loss of balance”. In terms of annual changes, the performance of most regions in several categories rose and showed a wave-like upward trend, reflecting the intermittent improvement characteristics of air pollution governance performance in most regions of Jiangxi. Finally, combined with the evaluation results, this paper proposes policy suggestions, such as improving the performance evaluation index system of air pollution governance, promoting the comprehensive governance of air pollution, focusing on regions with weaker air pollution governance, and strengthening the regional collaborative governance of air pollution.

Air pollution and high human capital population migration: An empirical study based on 35 major cities in China

Inequities in air pollution exposure and gaps in air quality monitoring

Since entering the industrialized era, China’s greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutant emissions have increased rapidly. China is the country with the most greenhouse gas emissions, and it is also facing serious local air pollution problems. China’s industrial sector is the largest contributor to CO2 and air pollutants. The resulting climate change and air pollution issues have caused China to face double pressures. This article uses the CO2 and comprehensive air pollutant emission data of China’s industrial sector as a starting point and uses econometric research methods to explore the synergy between China’s industrial carbon emission reduction and industrial comprehensive air pollutant emission reduction. The synergistic effect between industrial carbon emissions and industrial comprehensive air pollutant emissions has been quantified, and the transmission path of the synergistic effect has been explored. The empirical results show that there are benefits of synergistic governance between climate change and air pollution in China’s industrial sector. Every 1000 tons of carbon reduction in the industrial sector will result in 1 ton of comprehensive air pollutant reduction. The increase in R&D expenditure in the energy and power sector can significantly promote the reduction of air pollutants in the industrial sector. Increasing the intensity of environmental regulations is the main expansion path for synergy. However, in eastern, central, and western China, the synergy is not the same. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate regionally differentiated emission reduction policies. The research conclusions of this article can provide policy references for the coordinated governance of climate change and air pollution in China.

Enhancing people’s happiness should be the standard of public policies. With the growing prominence of air pollution issues, governments and scholars have started to pay attention to happiness as it relates to air pollution. However, the relevant research has been limited in China, and the results are not clear, with little attention given to subjective perception related to air pollution. In recent years, China has strengthened its efforts in containing air pollution, striving to fulfill the people’s longing for a blue sky. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of pollution governance on residents’ happiness, considering both objective and subjective aspects. Using the Chinese General Social Survey and data on PM10, our study was diachronic in nature, analyzing residents’ happiness and the improvement in air quality as well as people’s evaluation of governance concerning pollution. The statistical methods used primarily included t-tests and multiple linear regression. The results showed the following: (1) Residents’ happiness showed a significant improvement from 2013 to 2021, accompanied by enhancements in both an objective improvement in air quality and subjective evaluation of pollution governance. (2) Both an objective improvement in air quality and the subjective evaluation of pollution governance showed positive effects on residents’ happiness. This study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of the relationship between air pollution and happiness but also provides valuable insights for formulating policies that are more conducive to pollution governance and public happiness. To enhance happiness, the government needs to continue improving the air quality and guide residents in appropriately evaluating pollution governance.

Subway air pollution mainly refers to inhalable particulate matter (PM) pollution, organic pollution, and microbial pollution. Based on the investigation and calculation of the existing researches, this paper summarizes the sources of air pollutants, chemical compositions, and driving factors of PM variations in subway. It evaluates the toxicity and health risks of pollutants. In this paper, the problems and challenges during the deployment of air pollution governance are discussed. Results show that the global PM compliance rate of subway is about 30%. Subway air pollution is endogenous, which means that pollutants mainly come from mechanical wear and building materials erosions. Particles are mainly metal particles, black carbon, and floating dust. The health risks of some chemical elements in the subway have reached critical levels. The variations of PM concentrations show spatial-temporal characteristics, which are mainly controlled by train age, brakes types, and environmental control systems. The authors then analyze the dynamics of interactions among government, companies and public during the air pollution governance by adding the following questions: (a) who pays the bill; (b) how to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of policies; (c) how the public moves from risk perception to actions; (d) how to develop clean air technology better so as to ultimately incentivize stakeholders and to facilitate the implementation of subway clean air programme in a resilient mode.

This chapter rationalizes the importance of employing the cosmopolitan theoretical framework with interdisciplinary approaches to examine air pollution and risk governance in four East Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. First, related literatures are reviewed to support our rationale to propose cosmopolitan governance to transboundary air pollution in East Asia. Second, we briefly summarize studies and findings of each chapter in this edited book to explain four objectives of the book: (1) to conceptualize and construct East Asian perspectives on air pollution governance by exploring various cases studies in this region, as well as discussing how the existing fossil fuel-based economy can evolve toward a more sustainable, less carbon-intensive one; (2) to discuss the regional transboundary risk politics; (3) to analyze air pollution policy battles; (4) to understand contested risk constructions of air pollution in this region. Third, it is critical in East Asia to establish a robust epistemic community. Finally, in spite of achieving cosmopolitan, egalitarian, and cooperative governance will be challenging in East Asia, we believe that the new empirical findings offered in the chapters of this book will provide readers with fresh understanding of the complexities of transboundary air pollution in East Asia.