{"id":1912,"date":"2016-04-20T16:54:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T00:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/aboutus\/1912\/chinas-air-pollution-problem-is-heading-west\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T03:01:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T11:01:01","slug":"chinas-air-pollution-problem-is-heading-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/1912\/chinas-air-pollution-problem-is-heading-west\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s air pollution problem is heading west"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A camel passes in front of Dabancheng Wind Farm. China\u2019s best wind resources are made possible by the natural breach in Tianshan (Tian mountain). China has huge wind resources, which could be easily and profitably exploited by switching investment from climate destroying fossil fuels into harvesting this clean, abundant energy resource.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>The data is in, and at first glance it looks like good news. China\u2019s air quality has improved overall, but much of its less developed middle and western cities have seen marked increases in PM2.5 levels.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  caption-style-blue-overlay caption-alignment-center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"745\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf.jpg\" title=\"Dabancheng Wind Farm in China. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/  Hu Wei\" alt=\"Dabancheng Wind Farm in China. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/  Hu Wei\" class=\"wp-image-2365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf-768x477.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/e7129813-gp0pcf-510x317.jpg 510w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption><div class=\"credit icon-left\"> \u00a9 Greenpeace \/  Hu Wei<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">2016 has already been full of milestones for China: in March we heard more encouraging signs that China may reach peak emissions <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/china-s-carbon-emissions-could-peak-sooner-than-forecast-1.19597\">much earlier than expected<\/a> and China\u2019s economy is starting to <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/press\/releases\/climate-energy\/2016\/Data-shows-Chinas-economy-is-breaking-free-from-coal---Greenpeace\/\">wave goodbye<\/a> to its coal addiction.<\/div>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-dd85aadf-3274-87c8-35ff-9fa1802ad0a0\">Not to mention Mark Zuckerburg\u2019s now infamous \u2018Beijing Smog Jog\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Forgetting something? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Markzuckerberg?src=hash\">#Markzuckerberg<\/a> Smog kills thousands every day. Wear a mask! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P6Xy8FUbBb\">https:\/\/t.co\/P6Xy8FUbBb<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P9pRjXHRt7\">pic.twitter.com\/P9pRjXHRt7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEAsia\/status\/710729634455752704\">March 18, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We mined the data for 362 cities across the country and discovered that China\u2019s overall air quality has made massive improvements in the first quarter of 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>China\u2019s PM2.5 concentration fell an average of 8.8% compared to this time last year <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-dd85aadf-3275-9c50-8c73-5633f083197e\">Air quality in China\u2019s eastern coastal cities \u00a0improved dramatically in the first quarter of 2016. Beijing\u2019s PM2.5 concentration dropped by an incredible 27% compared to 2015\u2019s first quarter, while Shanghai\u2019s dropped by 12%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is great news for Beijing\u2019s residents who suffered from some of the worst pollution on record at the end of last year:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgpchina%2Fposts%2F10153787788669116&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"526\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>But pollution got<em> worse<\/em> in many cities in central and western China.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking at the data on a regional basis, we see an entirely different story.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>91of the 362 cities suffered from increases in air pollution, 69 of which are located in central and western China. What\u2019s more they saw a huge average jump of 20% compared to 2015 levels.<\/p>\n<p>Xinjiang fared particularly poorly- \u00a0this quarters top 5 most polluted cities were all located there.\u00a0<br \/>The improved air quality in the east is a clear result of China taking measures to tackle abysmal air pollution in the region. China\u2019s Air Pollution Action plan set solid targets for PM2.5 reduction in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, leading local governments to proactively monitor and manage air pollution.<\/p>\n<p>But as eastern China comes under increasingly stringent controls,\u00a0polluting industries have been heading west, to areas that aren\u2019t subject to as strict regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Between 2012-2015, industrial expansion expanded rapidly in western and central regions and it looks set to increase.<\/p>\n<p>China saw permit applications for 210 new coal fired power plants in 2015, 75% of which are to be located in central and western regions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/energydesk.cartodb.com\/viz\/60e190d2-86f1-11e5-aa0c-0e674067d321\/embed_map\" width=\"100%\" height=\"520\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unless action is taken, the trend of deteriorating air quality in parts of central and western China will continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The tremendous improvement seen in Beijing and the surrounding areas, demonstrates that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/news\/blog\/367-shades-of-grey-why-china-needs-a-coal-cap\/blog\/54429\/\">enforcing a coal cap<\/a> can dramatically reduce life-threatening air pollution on a regional basis: now it needs to be enforced nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Rolling out these measures across China means that polluting industries won\u2019t be able to move their production- and the accompanying air pollution- westwards.<\/p>\n<p>China has shown that it can make tremendous progress when it comes to tackling air pollution but it can\u2019t implement that change selectively. Steps need to be taken to make sure these measures benefit all of China\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n<p>See the full city rankings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/Greenpeace,-2016-1Q-city-rankings_media-briefing__0420.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here.<\/a><br \/><em>Dong Liansai is a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The data is in, and at first glance it looks like good news. China\u2019s air quality has improved overall, but much of its less developed middle and western cities have seen marked increases in PM2.5 levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22,18],"p4-page-type":[26],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-sustainably","tag-reduce-air-pollution","tag-coal","p4-page-type-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}