Photos in which a thick layer of pollution blocks the sun from appearing in broad daylight have been common in China for the past decade. There is no more.
According to a report presented in June by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), which uses satellite measurements, the country reduced the amount of harmful particles in the air by 40% between 2013 and 2020. .
It is the largest reduction in environmental pollution in a country in such a short time.
In fact, since the historic Clean Air Act of 1970, it has taken the United States thirty years to achieve a similar goal.
How did China achieve this in such a short time?
To answer this question, we first need to go back to 2013, when air pollution in the Asian country reached extreme levels.
Image: Getty Images
That year, China recorded an average of 52.4 micrograms (µg) of PM2.5 particulate contaminants per cubic meter (m3) – ten times the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) today.
PM2.5 fine particles, which are produced as a result of the combustion of wastes and fossil fuels, are very harmful to health due to their high penetrating ability into the airways.
“He was experiencing what we call Beijing back then. air apocalypse Christa Hasenkopf, director of air quality programs at EPIC and co-author of the study, explains to BBC News Mundo (something like “air doom”), with extreme pollution events getting people to realize the problem. Spanish from the BBC.
Image: Getty Images
Faced with the seriousness of the situation, the Chinese government declared war on air pollution.
At the end of 2013, with a generous budget of US$270 billion (R$1.4 trillion at current values), it activated the National Air Quality Action Plan to reduce pollution over a four-year period, adding another $120 billion to it. funding from Beijing.
war against coal
This plan set specific targets to reduce pollution by 35% over the next four years.
And enemy number one was the mineral that enabled China’s rapid industrialization and became the country’s main energy source since the last quarter of the 20th century: coal.
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The government has banned the construction of new coal plants in the most polluted cities and areas, forcing existing ones to reduce emissions or switch to natural gas.
In 2017 alone, 27 coal mines were closed in Shanxi province, which is the largest producer of this mineral in China.
In January 2018, the last coal plant in Beijing was shut down, while the Chinese government canceled plans to build 103 more.
Although coal remains China’s main source of electricity, it has increased from 67.4% of total production in 2013 to 56.8% in 2020, according to the country’s official data.
To offset decarbonisation, the Chinese government has also increased energy production from renewable sources.
And he got it to the point where in 2017 renewable energies represented a quarter of the country’s total electricity production, even surpassing the United States at 18 percent that same year.
It has also actively promoted nuclear power: between 2016 and 2020, it doubled its capacity with 20 new plants to 47 GW – and plans to reach 180 gigawatts by 2035, nearly double the current capacity of the United States.
car restrictions
Another measure was to reduce the iron and steel production capacity of the sector: It decreased by 115 million tons between 2016 and 2017 alone.
And, of course, he turned the attention to internal combustion engine vehicles.
In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major cities, the number of cars in circulation was limited to daily quotas, and the number of new license plates per year was also limited.
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That didn’t prevent the number of cars operating in China from rising from 126 million in 2013 to 273 million in 2020, according to official figures.
Of course with less emissions: The government tightened the rules and at the end of 2017 suspended the production of domestic and foreign 553 model vehicles, which polluted too much.
Emphasis on big cities
“If citizens continue to breathe cleaner air than 2013 levels, we estimate that China as a whole will gain 2 years in average life expectancy,” said EPIC’s director of air quality programs.
Hasenkopf points out that most of the country’s major cities have managed to reduce their pollution by more than 40% of the national average between 2013 and 2020.
Particles fell 44% in Shanghai, 50% in Guangzhou, 49% in Shenzhen and 56% in Beijing.
“The citizens of the four cities are breathing significantly cleaner air,” he says.
Image: Getty Images
more plans
The 2013 four-year program was followed by two more three-year plans to tackle air pollution, one in 2018 and the other in 2020, which further tightened emissions control measures.
On the other hand, restrictions and restrictions from the covid-19 pandemic have reduced industrial activity and transportation, which has translated into a reduction in pollution.
When asked whether this affected the outcome of the study, Hasenkopf said that the impact of the pandemic had not been specifically evaluated.
However, he reassured that “the 2020 data in China, overall, fits a steady trend of pollution reduction since 2014” and minimizes the covid factor.
China compared to the world
But not everything that shines is gold. Despite efforts in recent years, China’s cities still have a long way to go to clear the skies.
Pollution averages 37.9 µg/m3 in Beijing, much higher than 6.3 µg/m3 in New York; 9 µg/m3 London; 6.9 µg/m3 from Madrid; or 20.7 µg/m3 from Mexico City according to the latest satellite data.
Still, University of Chicago research estimates that residents of the Chinese capital will live an average of 4.4 years longer than in 2013, thanks to recent reductions in particulate pollutants.
Elsewhere the situation is much worse: in New Delhi, India, pollution reaches 107.6 µg/m3, more than 20 times the WHO recommended limit of 5 µg/m3.
Image: Getty Images
While Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are the countries where the air is breathed the most, China, which has been in the top five in this list for the last ten years, is currently the 9th with 31.6 µg/m3 according to the latest satellite data. for 2020.
The average value for the United States is 7.1 µg/m3. In Latin America, Guatemala, Bolivia, El Salvador and Peru are among the countries with the highest environmental pollution with levels of 20-30, while the rest are mostly between 10-20.
Image: Getty Images
The truth is that very few people on the planet can say they breathe clean air: 97% of the world’s population lives where air quality is below WHO standards.
“We live shorter lives because of the pollution in the air we breathe: That’s why we estimate that globally more than two years of life expectancy are lost on average,” Hasenkopf says.
“This burden on our lives is greater than HIV/AIDS, malaria or war.”
The study’s co-author states that the best source for reducing air pollution is not technological advances, but “a sustained political and social will to promote, finance and implement clean air policies.”
– Text originally published at http://bbc.co.uk/portuguese/internacional-62053174.
source: Noticias
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