How China's Winning Its Air Pollution Battle, And May Inspire India Into Action

For years, China has been known to be the biggest polluter in the world, with cities showing some of the most hazardous smog levels.

Yet, even as India has crept closer and in some ways surpassed to their horrific air pollution level, China has begun turning the whole situation around.

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It was back in March 2014, as covered by Reuters, that Chinese premier Li Keqiang told thousands of delegates at the National People's Congress assembly, as well as millions more watching live on state television, "We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty."

It was a necessary move. In 2013, measurements by the Beijing municipal government showed the city had its highest ever recorded level of PM2.5 particulate matter, at nearly 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre. That's well over the threshold where it's affecting the health of residents.

And the surprising thing is, the government actually followed through with tackling their pollution problem. It had been decades since China had bothered with environmental preservation over economic growth. So aside from people being doubtful, there was also years of damage to fix.

And yet, six years later, the data shows that China may actually be on the way to winning the fight. According to old Greenpeace data, the average PM2.5 concentrations fell by 33 percent between 2013 and 2017 in 74 major Chinese cities. Beijing, among other commercial hubs, saw a drastic drop in atmospheric pollution, except that the national average was still being held back by archaic policies favouring coal and heavy industries.

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It didn't stop there though, because the overall pollution in China fell another 10 percent between 2017 and 2018. In August this year, Beijing saw its lowest ever PM2.5 on record, just 23 micrograms per cubic metre. And all of that is because of the various steps they've taken.

Separating industry from metros

In their Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, published in September 2013, the Chinese government began laying on added prices on materials, transportation, and other charges for heavy industries, while simultaneously allowing them to shift to the outskirts of cities for their then current levies.

It was a way to organically push heavy industry out of many areas of Beijing and similar cities, in order to reduce the atmospheric pollution in some of the country's most densely populated areas. Of course, there's debate as to how much this will work in India, and whether that would even be the right move. After all, it wouldn't be the first time India has provided benefits to cities while neglecting our farming communities.

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Switching to alternate energy sources

Another measure the Chinese government took was investing in developing alternate energy sources like nuclear and hydro power, and compressed natural gas (CNG). An amendment to the plan in 2017 also saw China stop approving new thermal power plants, and cutting coal consumption in industrial areas.

The country also began investing a lot of money into the development of solar power, including in 2017 turning on the world's largest floating solar power plant. This year, they've also proposed assembling a massive solar power station in space within the next 10 years.

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Planting more trees

China has, in the past few years, been making serious attempts to improve its air quality, and part of that involves planting trees. According to NASA, they're actually one of the two countries that have refurnished the most lost greenery in the past 20 years, the other being India. "China and India account for one-third of the greening but contain only 9 percent of the planet's land area covered in vegetation," the report said at the time.

To that end, not only has the Chinese government been doing its bit, some of its largest corporations have also been getting in on the initiative, launching reforestation campaigns of their own. The country has also even brought up proposals of "vertical forest cities", green building projects that incorporate natural elements to keep the air, water, and earth clean and largely self-sustainable in these locations.

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Cracking down on big auto

The Chinese government also commenced a new plan a few years ago, limiting the number of new cars being produced and purchased, especially in Beijing. Part of this involved mandating that all automobile manufacturers with facilities in the country had to produce a minimum number of electric-vehicles each year. That's certainly something we could use, especially in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi (which would probably work even better with the odds-evens plan in action).

In fact, the Chinese government even considered banning all but electric vehicles last year, though that one's a more ambitious change to make.

Waste management changes

One program that's really out there, and yet really successful, involves how China deals with waste disposal. At the moment, there's no good way to dispose of non-recyclable waste. China instead decided to begin a project in a few test instances. They have the kitchen waste generated by small cities transported to faraway sites where it's fed to cockroaches at breeding farms. These roaches are later harvested to produce medicines and more (a common find in China), with them having in the meantime dealt with all of that wet garbage.

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All of this has clearly worked too.

In six years, China has cut down on its PM2.5 levels by about 32 percent on average, if not higher. And if they continue along that path, they could be extending the lifespan of people in Beijing and other major cities by months or years.

And it's something we certainly need now, as our cities slide to the bottom of the list of habitability. Heck, we can't even get people to stop killing themselves with firecrackers once a year, so it looks like we've really got our work cut out for us.