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The urgent and global concern of environmental problems transcends local and regional boundaries, posing significant challenges for policymakers in developing countries. Amid conflicting economic and environmental goals, evaluating the efficacy of regulatory policies becomes increasingly critical. This study investigates the effectiveness of public policy in incentivizing developing nations to prioritize environmental regulation, with a specific focus on China's most recent environmental policy, the Ecological Environmental Protection Plan. Using multilevel modeling and difference-indifferences estimation with data from six of China's most populous cities between 2014 and 2019, we see evidence of air quality improvements following the implementation of the policy. Furthermore, we observe greater enhancements in air quality in the cities most affected by the institutional details of the policy. This shows that well-crafted public policy can improve air quality, providing crucial insights for policymakers and scholars alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low efficiency of environmental policy implementation is an important issue in China's environmental governance. The Environmental Protection Interview (EPI) policy is an administrative means for the central environmental protection department to urge local governments to earnestly fulfill their environmental protection responsibilities. This paper takes China's EPI policy as a quasi-natural experiment. We use panel data of 261 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2018 as research sample and use spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model to investigate the effect and mechanism of EPI policy on air pollution. The results show that EPI policy can effectively improve air quality, EPI policy has obvious spatial spillover effects. Namely, the EPI policy can not only reduce the local air pollution, but also reduce the air pollution in neighbouring cities. The EPI policy reduces the air pollution in the neighbouring cities within a spatial attenuation boundary of 400 km.The results of mechanism test show that the EPI policy can improve air quality by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technical advancement. Moreover, the pollution reduction effect of EPI is more significant in resource-based cities. The research results of this paper provide important reference for China and other developing countries to improve air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We attempt to investigate how and when foreign direct investment (FDI) impacts different types of environmental pollution in host countries. Using provincial data from China between 1995 and 2015, we find that FDI mitigates air pollution, yet it has insignificant effect on water and solid pollution. We further reveal that it is the combination of the technology, scale and structure effects that jointly determines the impact of FDI on environmental pollution. Among them, the technology effect takes the most dominant role, followed by the scale effect and structure effect. In addition, by considering the time effect on environmental policy change, we suggest that the pollution halo effect mainly occurs after air pollution policy revision. Our findings provide insight on the complex mechanisms and theoretical boundary of FDI on different types of environmental pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clean energy transition has been considered as an indispensable way to attain sustainable development for China, where the coal-to-gas initiative plays a vital role towards the goal. This paper takes Beijing, China's political and economic center as well as a national pioneer in the energy transition, as a case to systematically analyze the co-mitigation of air pollution (PM2.5) and carbon emissions (CO2) achieved by the policy-driven natural gas-coal consumption substitution. Firstly, a qualitative analysis of the relationship of Beijing's coal-to-gas policies and its air quality has been conducted. Then, VAR and ARDL models are employed to quantitatively analyze the impacts of coal-to-gas policies on PM2.5 and CO2, respectively. Results show that (i) an innovation of natural gas/coal consumption ratio will reduce PM2.5 concentrations, and the effect decreases over time; and (ii) an increase of 1% in natural gas/coal consumption ratio in Beijing will cause a decrease of 0.0784% in CO2 emissions in the long run. Therefore, the coal-to-gas policies do increase the usage of natural gas and improve Beijing's air quality. The assessment methods and conclusions can be regarded as a reference for not only China's policymakers, but also other countries, especially nowadays when air quality is becoming more valued and GHGs are being tightly controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the relationship between air pollution and the status of human mental health using the data of the China Migrant Dynamic Survey (CMDS), 2014. Various econometric methods were used. Particularly, the ordinary least square (OLS) was used to estimate the parametric impact of mental health. Moreover, a robustness test was used to estimate negative impact of air pollution on mental health. Results found that air pollution significantly increased psychological disorder. The concentration of PM2.5 in the air leads to higher prominence of the four negative emotions such as nervous, depression, powerless, and restless or fidgety. After introducing the instrumental variable to solve the endogenous problem, the impact of air pollution on the level of the mental illnesses was still significant and negative. Results are also evident that air pollution has heterogeneity to the negative status of residents' mental health. Specifically, it has a significant and negative impact on women, rural and urban population, and middle- and low-income groups. The study results suggest that the government must have to revise the environmental regulation policy reduce the negative impact on human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, Chinese leaders declared "war against pollution," leaving local governments with considerable anti-pollution mandates – and, often, with the blame for insufficient implementation. There is a lack of large-scale systematic analyses of citizens' preferences for environmental protection by relevant government levels and the social structuration of such attitudes. This article aims first to assess associations between desire for local government to improve environmental protection, and socioeconomic status and air pollution; second, to identify indirect associations mediated by citizens' awareness of pollution. The research was based on nationally representative survey data from 2014. Results show the lowest occupational class as less likely than higher classes to mention environmental protection when asked which local government services should increase, but as likely to express environmental risk awareness. Policymakers should consider mechanisms such as social protection, inclusion and environmental justice to enhance local environmental policy desire among lower classes and facilitate effective environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for electricity worldwide has caused a corresponding rise in the consumption of coal, leading to an increase in sulfur dioxide (SO 2) pollution levels. Despite the severity of the issue, there is a lack of conclusive evidence establishing a causal link between SO 2 pollution and health, particularly in developing countries. We leverage a large national environmental regulation policy, implemented in China to reduce SO 2 emissions, to estimate the impacts of SO 2 pollution on mortality. We find that 1- μ g / m 3 reduction in SO 2 concentrations leads to 18 fewer cardiovascular deaths per 100,000 people aged 60 years and above (0.9% decrease) and 2 fewer deaths per 100,000 children under the age of 5 (1.5% decrease) annually. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the total health benefits of the environmental policy outweigh its economic costs. The results are consistent across various robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing's smog hazard is one of the most urgent issues on China's public agenda. Drawing on the recently developed dynamic discourse coalition (DDC) approach, this article examines the ways in which the hazard's initial outbreak in early 2013 was reported by four news sources: the Xinhua News Agency; China Daily; South China Morning Post; and the Associated Press. The findings suggest that although domestic and overseas media first provided different explanations for the hazard, these were eventually consolidated into the same problem-solving discourse of "leave-it-to-experts." This discourse included a proposal to address the hazard under the current political economic structure of industrial capitalism. The proposal, however, was constrained by an elitist bias that downplayed China's existing social and regional inequalities. The article argues that environmental challenges such as the smog hazard call for not only a sustainable model to direct China's future development, but also the explicit recognition of the country's existing environmental injustices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Over the last three decades, rapid industrialization in China has generated an unprecedentedly high level of air pollution and associated health problems. Given that China accounts for one-fifth of the world population and suffers from severe air pollution, a comprehensive review of the indicators accounting for the health costs in relation to air pollution will benefit evidence-based and health-related environmental policy-making. This paper reviews the conventional static and the new dynamic approach adopted for air pollution-related health cost accounting in China and analyzes the difference between the two in estimating GDP loss. The advantages of adopting the dynamic approach for health cost accounting in China, with conditions guaranteeing its optimal performance are highlighted. Guidelines on how one can identify an appropriate approach for health cost accounting in China are put forward. Further, we outline and compare the globally-applicable and China-specific indicators adopted by different accounting methodologies, with their pros and cons being discussed. A comprehensive account of the available databases and methodologies for health cost accounting in China are outlined. Future directions to guide health cost accounting in China are provided. Our work provides valuable insights into future health cost accounting research in China. Our study has strengthen the view that the dynamic approach is comparatively more preferred than the static approach for health cost accounting in China, if more data is available to train the dynamic models and improve the robustness of the parameters employed. In addition, future dynamic model should address the socio-economic impacts, including benefits or losses of air pollution polices, to provide a more robust policy picture. Our work has laid the key principles and guidelines for selecting proper econometric approaches and parameters. We have also identified a proper estimation method for the Value of Life in China, and proposed the integration of engineering approaches, such as the use of deep learning and big data analysis for health cost accounting at the fine-grained level (city-district or sub-regional level). Our work has also identified the gap for more accurate health cost accounting at the fine-grained level in China, which will subsequently affect the quality of health-related air pollution policy decision-making at such levels, and the health-related quality of life of the citizens in China. Highlights • The dynamic health cost accounting a preferred approach in China • Future dynamic model should address parameter robustness and socio-economic impacts. • Guidelines for selecting proper econometric approaches and parameters stated • Estimation methods for Values of Life in China and integration of methods proposed • Accurate health cost accounting at fine spatial resolutions needed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of environmental governance in China mainly discuss bilateral encounters, such as popular protests against polluting companies, NGO collaboration with local authorities, or local government collusion with enterprises which can lead to the sabotage of effective pollution controls. This article studies a case in which a communication mechanism involving multiple actors created a basis for the innovative and successful enforcement of air pollution regulation. Pressurized by popular protests and superior level policy mandates, the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) in Hangzhou City started to employ a dialogue forum which ultimately brought residents, enterprises as well as government agencies together to implement local air pollution control measures. Through information-sharing, interest mediation and trust building in a gradually more horizontal process, the government-led multiple stakeholders' dialogue helped to overcome the agency's structural weakness, regulate the polluting companies and address residents' complaints. We conclude that this case study can provide some insights into the ways in which opportunities for driving forward innovative and effective environmental governance strategies at the local level emerged against the background of recently enforced top-level environmental protection policies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a critical environmental problem that has spurred great public concern in China. This study examines how issue salience, environmental value, risk perception, and affective response influence information seeking, objective knowledge, and policy support related to this issue. The recent release of a controversial environmental documentary on Chinese social media, Under the Dome, also prompted us to explore the impact of exposure to this documentary on Chinese social media users’ information seeking and policy support related to air pollution. Results showed that risk perception and negative affect influenced information seeking and policy support both directly and indirectly. Also, exposure to the documentary moderated the effects of key variables on information seeking and policy support. However, contrary to our expectations, no significant relationship was found between information seeking and objective knowledge. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burning coal for winter heating has been considered a major contributor to northern China's winter haze, with the district heating boilers holding the balance. However a decade of intensive efforts on district heating boilers brought few improvements to northern China's winter air quality, arousing a speculation that the household heating stoves mainly in rural area rather than the district heating boilers mainly in urban area dominate coal emissions in winter. This implies an extreme underestimation of rural household coal consumption by the China Energy Statistical Yearbooks (CESYs), although direct evidence supporting this speculation is lacking. A village energy survey campaign was launched to gather the firsthand information on household coal consumption in the rural areas of two cities, Baoding (in Hebei province) and Beijing (the capital of China). The survey data show that the rural raw coal consumption in Baoding (5.04 × 10 3 kt) was approximately 6.5 times the value listed in the official CESY 2013 and exceeded the rural total of whole Hebei Province (4668 kt), revealing a huge amount of raw coal missing from the current statistical system. More importantly, rural emissions of particulate matter (PM) and SO 2 from raw coal, which had never been included in widely distributing environmental statistical reports, were found higher than those from industrial and urban household sectors in the two cities in 2013, which highlights the importance of rural coal burning in creating northern China's heavy haze and helps to explain why a number of modeling predictions on ambient pollutant concentrations based on normal emission inventories were more bias-prone in winter season than in other seasons. We therefore recommend placing greater emphasis on the “missing” rural raw coal to help China in its long-term ambition to achieve clean air in the context of rapid economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is setting increasingly ambitious greenhouse gas targets and backing them up with a wide array of policies and programmes. How successful China will be in slowing and eventually reversing the growth in its greenhouse gas emissions will depend significantly on how well it does with policy implementation at the local and regional levels. This article examines how climate governance works in China's multi-level governance structure. It explores why the Chinese leadership is taking climate change seriously, the nature of the policies and programmes being introduced, and the steps being taken to promote local environmental innovation and improve policy compliance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequent occurrence of extreme haze episodes in China in recent years has triggered the Chinese government to take action to tackle the serious air quality problems. Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) accounts for much of China's poor air quality; given the health risks associated with such pollution, the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban PM 2.5 concentrations constitute a matter of significant interest within the Chinese research and policy communities. Using the first long-term datasets available in relation to PM 2.5 levels, obtained from a year-long monitoring program of concentrations utilizing 945 monitoring stations in 190 cities in China in 2014, we found significant differences in PM 2.5 concentrations among cities, ranging between 18.7 and 131.4 μg/m 3 , with an average of at 61 ± 20 μg/m 3 ; only 18 (or 9.5%) of the 190 monitored cities could meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards of China. PM 2.5 concentrations are generally highest in the cities east of the Hu Line and north of the Yangtze River due to high PM emissions from transport and coal combustion and unfavorable atmospheric conditions. We also observed marked seasonal variations in concentration levels, with the highest levels occurring during winter and the lowest in summer. By grouping Chinese cities according to their size, our econometric analysis shows a positive correlation between PM 2.5 concentrations and the size of the urban area, urban population, share of secondary industry and population density, and a first increasing and then decreasing relationship between GDP per capita and PM 2.5 concentration. Urban expansion and structural economic change has thus contributed to an increase in urban PM 2.5 emissions. Without careful planning, continuing urbanization will precipitate further severe air pollution causing significant health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid industrialization in China has brought forward serious and harmful atmospheric pollution. In this study, spatial econometric analysis was used to analyze the spatial change and the driving forces behind the industrial sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) discharge in China from 2001 to 2014. The study found that the amount of industrial SO 2 discharge (ISOD) increased first and then decreased during this period. ISOD intensity witnessed a fluctuating drop. There were large differences among intercity ISOD amount and intensity, which had various spatial patterns. Global Moran's I of ISOD amount and intensity had a tendency to increase on the whole, showed positive spatial autocorrelation, and revealed a more and more remarkable clustered spatial pattern. Local spatial autocorrelation analysis found that the spatial patterns of ISOD amount and intensity changed considerably over space and time. The spatial patterns of ISOD were significantly influenced by the regional differences in land use and environmental policy. The study also found that the driving forces of ISOD in China changed significantly from 2001 to 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural ventilation (NV) is a key sustainable solution for reducing the energy use in buildings, improving thermal comfort, and maintaining a healthy indoor environment. However, the energy savings and environmental benefits are affected greatly by ambient air pollution in China. Here we estimate the NV potential of all major Chinese cities based on weather, ambient air quality, building configuration, and newly constructed square footage of office buildings in the year of 2015. In general, little NV potential is observed in northern China during the winter and southern China during the summer. Kunming located in the Southwest China is the most weather-favorable city for natural ventilation, and reveals almost no loss due to air pollution. Building Energy Simulation (BES) is conducted to estimate the energy savings of natural ventilation in which ambient air pollution and total square footage at each city must be taken into account. Beijing, the capital city, displays limited per-square-meter saving potential due to the unfavorable weather and air quality for natural ventilation, but its largest total square footage of office buildings makes it become the city with the greatest energy saving opportunity in China. Our analysis shows that the aggregated energy savings potential of office buildings at 35 major Chinese cities is 112 GWh in 2015, even after allowing for a 43 GWh loss due to China’s serious air pollution issue especially in North China. 8–78% of the cooling energy consumption can be potentially reduced by natural ventilation depending on local weather and air quality. The findings here provide guidelines for improving current energy and environmental policies in China, and a direction for reforming building codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air deterioration caused by pollution has harmed public health. The existing studies on the economic loss caused by a variety of air pollutants in multiple cities are lacking. To understand the effect of different pollutants on public health and to provide the basis of the environmental governance for governments, based on the dose-response relation and the willingness to pay, this paper used the latest available data of the inhalable particulate matter (PM) and sulphur dioxide (SO) from January 2015 to June 2015 in 74 cities by establishing the lowest and the highest limit scenarios. The results show that (1) in the lowest and highest limit scenario, the health-related economic loss caused by PM and SO represented 1.63 and 2.32 % of the GDP, respectively; (2) For a single city, in the lowest and the highest limit scenarios, the highest economic loss of the public health effect caused by PM and SO was observed in Chongqing; the highest economic loss of the public health effect per capita occurred in Hebei Baoding. The highest proportion of the health-related economic loss accounting for GDP was found in Hebei Xingtai. The main reason is that the terrain conditions are not conducive to the spread of air pollutants in Chongqing, Baoding and Xingtai, and the three cities are typical heavy industrial cities that are based on coal resources. Therefore, this paper proposes to improve the energy structure, use the advanced production process, reasonably control the urban population growth, and adopt the emissions trading system in order to reduce the economic loss caused by the effects of air pollution on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution problems in China are related to imperfect legislation and potential integration problems among legislation, plans, and policies from the perspective of legislation, planning, and policy-making. Recent English-language articles focus on revision of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law of China. The purpose of this study is to make the overall system for prevention and control of air pollution in China understood by a broader audience by providing an overview of the pertinent legislation, plans, and policies, since such a review has not been presented so far. At the beginning of this article, we clarify the key definitions of legislation, plan, and policy and establish a preliminary analytical framework for evaluating the integration of legislation, plans, and policies. Then we present a variety of pieces of legislation at national, local, and international levels, including the Constitution, national laws, national administrative regulations and departmental rules, and local regulations and rules that were selected because of their direct and close relation to the prevention and control of air pollution, especially particulate matter. We divide the history of legislation since 1956 into four phases: preceding (1956–1978), beginning (1979–1999), development (2000–2013), and improvement (since 2014), putting emphases on changes in legislation in each phase. We also describe the 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, the 12th Five-Year Plan on Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in Key Regions, the Action Plan on Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, and a series of policies on energy conservation, emission reduction, and energy use. We then comment on challenges of defects within the legislation framework and integration problems among legislation, plans, and policies. Finally, we put forward some improvement measures to address the challenges: (1) stipulating special provisions for prevention and control of motor vehicle pollution, (2) empowering local environmental protection bureaus to enforce the air-pollutant-emission permit system, (3) improving the feasibility of the air-pollutant-emission trading system, (4) clarifying government responsibility and intensifying penalties, and (5) integrating relations among legislation, plans, and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, China has witnessed substantial progress in urbanization and industrialization and has become the manufacturing center of the world, but has suffered from severe environmental deterioration, especially air pollution. National and provincial governments have adopted a series of policy tools aiming at energy conservation and emission reduction, varying from energy saving regulations to cleaner production policies. This paper investigates provincial energy saving and emission reduction policies by evaluating their effectiveness on local air pollution control. Relying on a panel data regression analysis on a sample of 26 provinces and four centrally-controlled municipalities over a ten-year period from 2002 to 2011, we find empirical support for the positive impacts of provincial energy saving regulations and two environmental standards on the improvement of local air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development brings the great material wealth in China, and lays great risks to our life at the same time. The number of people who died of respiratory diseases is also increasing year by year as the increased air pollution, especially the haze. Air pollution is mainly caused by enterprises. Though many incentive measures to reduce the emission has already been targeted to make by government, and there are some game spaces to achieve the goal of emission reduction between central and local governments, enterprises and governments, and among various local governments. Thus the result of policy implementation is greatly reduced. We think that the index of enterprise emission reduction wiil be fundamentally achieved to return the people a blue sky, only if the relevant rights with emission reduction between central and local governments can fully be taken into account to reasonably divide in the process of policy formulation and implementation; the local governments are guided from zero-sum game to non-zero-sum game in emission reduction; the collaborative model of the emission reduction is established between governments and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the national air pollution, China implemented the Clean Air Action policy from 2013 to 2017. The vigorous implementation of the policy has ensured that the policy targets have been achieved, and the haze problem has been effectively controlled. To evaluate the policy effect of environmental regulation on labor demand, this paper conducts policy evaluation by designing a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the variations of labor demand in the region dimension (272 cities) and sector dimension (5 major sectors) from 2008 to 2017, the results of the difference-in-difference-in-difference estimation show that: 1) The implementation of Clean Air Action has a significant negative impact on industrial employment. 2) The dynamic shocks are concentrated in the final stage of the policy. 3) Policy effects show heterogeneity in different regions. Since China is in the critical stage of economic transformation, the findings and enlightenment of this paper can be extended to other environmental and climate policies. • The Clean Air Action provides a quasi-natural experiment. • Environmental regulation has a negative impact on labor demand. • The shocks are mainly concentrated in the final stage. • The policy effect is insignificant in the central and western regions and resource-based cities. • The government should make a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study evaluates air pollution-related health impacts on the Chinese economy by using an expanded version of the Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis model. We estimated that marginal welfare impact to the Chinese economy of ozone and particulate-matter concentrations above background levels increased from 1997 US$22 billion in 1975 to 1997 US$112 billion in 2005, despite improvements in overall air quality. This increase is a result of the growing urban population and rising wages that thus increased the value of lost labor and leisure. In relative terms, however, welfare losses from air pollution decreased from 14% of the historical welfare level to 5% during the same period because the total size of the economy grew much faster than the absolute air pollution damages. In addition, we estimated that particulate-matter pollution alone led to a gross domestic product loss of 1997 US$64 billion in 1995. Given that the World Bank''s comparable estimate drawn from a static approach was only 1997 US$34 billion, this result suggests that conventional static methods neglecting the cumulative impact of pollution-caused welfare damage are likely to underestimate pollution-health costs substantially. However, our analysis of uncertainty involved in exposure–response functions suggests that our central estimates are susceptible to significantly large error bars of around ±80%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Coal is not only an important energy source in China but also a major source of air pollution. Because of this, China’s national sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions have been the highest in the world for many years, and since the 1990s, the territory of China’s south and southwest has become the third largest acid-rain-prone region in the world. In order to control SO2 emissions, the Chinese government has formulated and promulgated a series of policies and regulations, but it faces great difficulties in putting them into practice. In this retrospective look at the history of SO2 control in China, we found that Chinese SO2 control policies have become increasingly strict and rigid. We also found that the environmental policies and regulations are more effective when central officials consistently give environmental protection top priority. Achieving China’s environmental goals, however, has been made difficult by China’s economic growth. Part of this is due to the practice of environmental protection appearing in the form of an ideological “campaign” or “storm” that lacks effective economic measures. More recently, better enforcement of environmental laws and regulations has been achieved by adding environmental quality to the performance assessment metrics for leaders at all levels. To continue making advances, China needs to reinforce the economic and environmental assessments for pollution control projects and work harder to integrate economic measures into environmental protection. Nonetheless, China has a long way to go before economic growth and environmental protection are balanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses efforts to control air pollution in urban China. An increase in pollution from building sites and vehicles has created difficulties for local Chinese environmental protection bureaus (EPBs), as they do not have sole authority over such situations, but share oversight with other government agencies. Some of the challenges this poses for EPBs as they attempt to fulfill their missions are noted. An example from the city of Chongquing, where inter-agency coordination enabled the local EPB to implement Chongqing's Blue Sky Program is cited as an example of an effective means of handling such challenges.

Growing international trade has been one of the most important drivers for China's recent economic growth. This growth has fed rapid increases in energy demand and carbon emissions since 2000. China is now the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide. There is mounting pressure from some in the international community for China to take specific actions to mitigate its emissions as part of a post-2012 climate regime. However, emissions embodied in internationally traded goods have not been given enough attention in this debate. This article discusses the results of research to quantify the emissions stemming from goods that are exported from China to other countries. It finds that these emissions accounted for 23% of China's national total in 2004. The article sets out how this result has been obtained and compares it to the results of several other pieces of research to demonstrate the importance of this issue. Some pointers for international climate policy are then discussed, including the advantages and difficulties of moving to consumption-based emissions accounting, and implications for international trade rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to many discussions based on annual emissions, this article presents calculations and projections of cumulative contributions to the stock of atmospheric CO2 by the major players, China, Europe, India, Japan and the USA, for the period 1900-2080. Although relative contributions to the climate problem are changing dramatically, notably due to the rapid industrialization of China, long-term responsibilities for enhanced global warming have not been transparently quantified in the literature. The analysis shows that if current trends continue, by the middle of this century China will overtake the USA as the major cumulative contributor to atmospheric concentrations of CO2. This has enormous implications for the debate on the ethical responsibilities of the major greenhouse gas emitters. Effective climate policy will require both the recognition of shared responsibility and an unprecedented degree of cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: In the past 25 years, China has experienced remarkable economic growth and rapid agricultural-to-industrial and rural-to-urban transitions. As a consequence, China now faces many daunting environmental challenges that are significantly affecting human health and quality of life, including indoor and outdoor air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, loss of agricultural land, and sustainability. Chinese government leaders have recently emphasized the need for better environmental protection practices along with interventions involving strong public participation. OBJECTIVES: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to research that involves community members, organizational representatives, and researchers as equal participants in all phases of the research process. Over the past 15 years, CBPR has gained recognition and acceptance and is now valued as a means to effect change and provide scientific knowledge relevant to human health and the environment. In this article we highlight the success of CBPR in the United States and suggest that it could be a useful model for addressing environmental health problems in the People's Republic of China. DISCUSSION: CBPR can reduce the tension between science and society by promoting genuine communication, by enabling scientists and administrators to listen and respond to the public, by allowing communities to help shape the research agenda, and by increasing accountability of researchers and governments to the public. CONCLUSIONS: CBPR can potentially help improve environmental health in China, but it is likely to take a different form than it has in the West because the government will be leading the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of creating a global low-carbon society is examined from the perspectives of a slow-growing but highly developed economy (Canada) and a fast-growing developing economy (China). Both countries' responses are compared to a similar carbon price schedule (US$10/tCO2e in 2013 rising exponentially to $100 by 2050) using a hybrid technologically explicit and behaviourally realistic model with macroeconomic feedbacks (CIMS). Then additional measures are imposed based on the national circumstances of each country; for Canada we simulate a 50% reduction by 2050, and stabilization for China. The scale of the challenge in all cases requires that every available option be vigorously pursued, including energy efficiency, fuel switching, carbon capture and storage, and accelerated development of renewables; to compensate, there are significant co-reductions of local air pollutants such as SOx and NOx. Finally, the abatement cost schedules of China and Canada are compared, and implications considered for carbon permit flows if the cost schedule of the rest of the developed world is assumed to be similar to that of Canada. We found that the developed world and China could collectively reduce emissions by 50% in 2050 at a price of $175/ tCO2e, with permits flowing from the developed countries to China; while abatement costs are lower in China up to $75/t, at higher prices reductions are less costly in the developed world. Our results indicate that a global low-carbon society is feasible, on condition that policy makers are willing and able to impose long-term, credible policy packages with carbon pricing policy as the core element, coupled with supplementary regulations to address market failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a extra-large city in China, Beijing faces a serious problem with air pollution. In 1998, a package of air pollution control measures was announced by local government. However in order to reach environment target, further policy options have to be explored. Based on previous studies on technology choices for urban transport in Beijing, this paper presents a policy assessment to examine these options. A methodology framework using criteria for policy evaluation was used in the assessment. Here diesel-car, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicle and Mass Railway based Transport (MRT) were selected, and barriers to their diffusion were identified. For each barrier, a group of policy options to remove the barrier was evaluated by five criteria. A ranking of these policy options is given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced dramatic urbanisation and motorisation in the past 20 years. The phenomenal rise in the vehicle population in major cities has resulted in increased air pollution, traffic congestion and other 'wicked problems'. The Chinese government at all levels has made significant effort to control motor vehicle emissions, but vehicle population growth far outpaces their efforts, resulting in deteriorating air quality. Successful vehicle emissions control policies in industrialised countries offer China new technical and policy tools. This paper outlines China's current air pollution challenges and the technical and policy solutions under consideration by the Chinese central and municipal governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of several studies on environmental geochemistry. Some of the abstracts presented include "Biogeochemical Cycling of Nutrients in Karstic Catchments, Southwestern China: Linkages to Changes of Eco-Environments," by Congqiang Liu and "Emerging Organic Contamination in China," by Guibin Jiang and colleagues.