Air quality improvements and health benefits from China’s clean air action since 2013

Zheng, Yixuan; Xue, Tao; Zhang, Qiang; Geng, Guannan; Tong, Dan; Li, Xin; He, Kebin

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa8a32

Cited by 244 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…year −1 or −7.2% year −1 . This is comparable to Zheng et al (2017), who find that the annual mean PM 2.5 across 74 Chinese cities decreased by 23.6% between 2013-2015 (−7.9% year −1 ). Lin et al (2018) used satellite data to suggest the Chinese PM 2.5 trend steepened from −0.65 μg m −3 year −1 between 2006-2010 to −2.3 μg m −3 year −1 between 2011-2015.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 81%

Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015–2017

Silver

Reddington

Arnold

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

187

123

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China's rapid industrialisation and urbanisation has led to poor air quality. The Chinese government have responded by introducing policies to reduce emissions and setting ambitious targets for ambient PM 2.5 , SO 2 , NO 2 and O 3 concentrations. Previous satellite and modelling studies indicate that concentrations of these pollutants have begun to decline within the last decade. However, prior to 2012, air quality data from ground-based monitoring stations were difficult to obtain, limited to a few locations in major cities, and often unreliable. Since then, a comprehensive monitoring network, with over 1000 stations across China has been established by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). We use a three-year (2015-2017) dataset consisting of hourly PM 2.5 , O 3 , NO 2 and SO 2 concentrations obtained from the MEE, combined with similar data from Taiwan and Hong Kong. We find that at 53% and 59% of stations, PM 2.5 and SO 2 concentrations have decreased significantly, with median rates across all stations of −3.4 and −1.9 μg m −3 year −1 respectively. At 50% of stations, O 3 maximum daily 8 h mean (MDA8) concentrations have increased significantly, with median rates across all stations of 4.6 μg m −3 year −1 . It will be important to understand the relative contribution of changing anthropogenic emissions and meteorology to the changes in air pollution reported here.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 81%

Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015–2017

Silver

Reddington

Arnold

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

187

123

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“…Compared to these temporary plans, the Action Plan is China's longest-term, largest-scale, and toughest clean air policy to date. The implementation of the Action Plan has made significant achievements in both air quality improvement and public health protection, which can be evidenced from the results of our study and several other studies [18,19,39,40].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…To date, several studies have been conducted at regional and national levels to evaluate the effectiveness of the Action Plan. These studies have consistently indicated the health benefits of the improved air quality following the implementation of the Action Plan [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. However, such studies had limitations, as follows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the short-term mortality effect of the national action plan on air pollution in Beijing, China

Han

Sun

Gong

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (referred to as the Action Plan henceforth) provides a golden opportunity for China to evaluate whether the remarkable air quality improvements as a result of the plan have brought about health benefits to residents. Based on the ground-level particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) concentrations and the daily respiratory-cardiovascular mortality, we aimed to assess changes in the mortality effect associated with short-term exposure to PM 2.5 due to the implementation of the Action Plan in Beijing. We analyzed the changes in PM 2.5 concentrations and air quality during the pre-and post-emission reduction periods. We then used the generalized additive model to estimate the changes in mortality risk associated with PM 2.5 exposure during both periods. We found that following the introduction of the Action Plan, the annual average PM 2.5 concentrations declined from 101.7 μg m −3 in 2013 to 58.6 μg m −3 in 2017, attaining the target of the plan (60 μg m −3 ). The remarkable reduction in PM 2.5 concentrations has led to a marked decrease in mortality risk. Compared with the pre-emission reduction level, total respiratory mortality decreased from 0.56% (95% CI: 0.40%-0.73%) to 0.43% (95% CI: 0.23%-0.63%), while the total cardiovascular mortality decreased from 0.44% (95% CI: 0.37%-0.52%) to 0.29% (95% CI: 0.19%-0.39%). Significant decreases were also observed in sex-specific subgroups. Our study implied that the significant efforts of the nation to clean China's air has yielded positive results of air quality improvement and human health protection in Beijing. However, the ambient air pollution in Beijing remains severe. The PM 2.5 concentrations still exceed the level (annual average of 10 μg m −3 ) recommended by the World Health Organization. Thus, consistent efforts are required to implement the emission abatement measures to continuously curb air pollution and protect public health.

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“…For example, Yang et al (2016) to the increasing trend of wintertime PM 2.5 concentrations averaged over eastern China from 1985China from to 2005 To improve air quality, "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" was promulgated by Chinese government in 2013. As a consequence, observed annual mean PM 2.5 concentrations decreased by about 20% over China during (Zheng et al, 2017 due to effective reductions in major air pollutants (e.g., SO 2 and NO 2 ), for example, about 50% reduction of SO 2 over North China Plain during 2012-2015 as seen by satellite retrievals (Krotkov et al, 2016). However, observed winter severe haze events did not show reductions in recent years (Figure 1a), highlighting potential importance of atmospheric conditions in influencing the occurrence of severe haze events in winter (Cai et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Attribution of Anthropogenic Influence on Atmospheric Patterns Conducive to Recent Most Severe Haze Over Eastern China

Liao

Cai

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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Severe haze pollution in eastern China has caused substantial health impacts and economic loss. Conducive atmospheric conditions are important to affect occurrence of severe haze events, and circulation changes induced by future global climate warming are projected to increase the frequency of such events. However, a potential contribution of an anthropogenic influence to recent most severe haze (December 2015 and January 2013) over eastern China remains unclear. Here we show that the anthropogenic influence, which is estimated by using large ensemble runs with a climate model forced with and without anthropogenic forcings, has already increased the probability of the atmospheric patterns conducive to severe haze by at least 45% in January 2013 and 27% in December 2015, respectively. We further confirm that simulated atmospheric circulation pattern changes induced by anthropogenic influence are driven mainly by increased greenhouse gas emissions. Our results suggest that more strict reductions in pollutant emissions are needed under future anthropogenic warming.

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Air quality improvements and health benefits from China’s clean air action since 2013

Cited by 244 publications

References 33 publications

Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015–2017

Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015–2017

Assessment of the short-term mortality effect of the national action plan on air pollution in Beijing, China

Attribution of Anthropogenic Influence on Atmospheric Patterns Conducive to Recent Most Severe Haze Over Eastern China

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