Learn from Experienced Countries while Having Unique Strategies to Effectively Solve Air Pollution Problems

When you think about China, what’s the first thing that usually comes into your mind? The country that has the longest history and the largest population? The country that has the second largest and continuous booming economy? Or the country you constantly hear from Donald Trump and the new president Joe Biden’s speeches? They are all correct. While China’s influence has been undoubtedly growing larger and larger on a global scale, it has also been constantly facing one of the most serious global problems, air pollution. Even though the Chinese government had spent huge effort and issued numerous policies towards solving air pollution problems in the past decade leading the air quality to drastically improve, it is still far from the healthy and perfect air quality level. However, looking from a global perspective, China is by no means the first, nor the only country that suffers from air pollution. Many developed countries shared the same history of going through the process from improving extreme air pollution to a healthy and clean air quality. Therefore, it is very important for China, a not yet developed country, to consider what it can learn from the experienced countries to further improve air quality, and vice versa, how can some of China’s unique strategies toward air pollution affect other countries in the future.

Beijing, the capital of China, one of the most modernized world level cities, “suffers from some of the worst air pollution worldwide”(Ye). The surge in the number of motorized vehicles, population growth, output from manufacturing, and natural reasons which include the city’s surrounding topography and seasonal weather are all factors that contribute to the air pollution in Beijing. Other than the unique natural reasons, the other factors are all results of China’s enormous economic boom, which is also the most important source for the air pollution in Beijing, more specifically, the smog.

China has been and is still experiencing huge economic growth, accordingly, this increase in wealth is directly correlated with the air pollution. China has been the world’s biggest production country for a long time, which is an important reason for China’s booming economy. Therefore, China has always been referred to as the “world factory.” The many factories in Beijing, more specifically the “coal burning factories” have always been an important source for the air pollution in Beijing (Ye). The increase in wealth also means that “individuals are more capable of affording motor vehicles.” Within a few years, “the number of motor vehicles on Beijing roads has doubled to 3.3 million with nearly 1200 added each day” (Ye). This drastic increase in motor vehicles also became the most important source of the air pollution in Beijing. Emissions from motorized vehicles, more specifically the four most dangerous pollutants, “sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (e.g. PM10)” contribute to nearly 70% of the city’s pollution (Ye). However, other than the artificial reasons, the natural resources are also important reasons for the creation of the smog. Beijing has mountains surrounding the city, which make Beijing “a victim of its own topography” (Ye). This type of topography is really hard for wind to exchange, therefore ensuring the pollution remains trapped within the city limits. The air quality even gets worse in spring and summer due to the high temperature and humidity level. Last but not least, humans themselves are also a natural source of pollution. China has been the most populous country in the world and Beijing as the capital of China is also one of the most populous cities in the world with 22 million permanent residents. Furthermore, Beijing’s population has swelled from 11 million to 16 million in just 7 years, and has doubled over the past century. It is clear that there are numerous reasons that lead to the serious air pollution and the according consequences in Beijing. Along with health consequences, the smog also leads to low visibility problems (Ye)

Similar with Beijing, London had also suffered from serious smog for a long time in the past century. London was one of the earliest countries that went through the industrial revolution. Smog was widely recognized as “a problem having occurred in London during the 19th and early 20th coal century, and generally resulting from the burning of large amounts of coal”(Liang, 68). However, this smog is only partially the same as the one in Beijing (Ye). In the early days, “the term smog came from combining smoke and fog or smoky fog. Back then smog contained soot particles from smoke, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants”(Liang, 68). In 1952, the famous Great Smog of London occurred. The smog, which was caused by a combination of smoke and fog, brought the city to a near standstill, covered the city of London for five days and resulted in thousands of deaths (Martinez). After the lesson of this incident, the government passed the “Clean Air Act” in 1956, which was essential for the improvement of air quality in the U.K. (Martinez). The act not only provides specific provisions, but also implements in very simple ways. For example, in order to ensure the implementation of the law, the act granted local authorities the authority to execute on behalf of the law. The act also specifies penalties for offenders a fine of 10 to 100 pounds per day per case. At the same time, the act also enabled people to supervise the officials. If local officials disclose secrets learned in their duties, they will be fined or imprisoned (Wang, Zhang, Lv, 55). After the law was announced, it has been well implemented and practiced. After strengthening and implementing relevant legislation, air pollution in British cities has been effectively controlled, and air quality has been significantly improved. Afterwards, the United Kingdom promulgated a series of laws and regulations to control air pollution, such as the “Pollution Control Act”, “Public Health Act”, “Radioactive Material Act”, “Car Use Regulations” and “Various Energy Act” (Wang, Zhang, Lv, 55). After the Great Smog incident, the United Kingdom quickly took actions and paid special attention to the implementation of the act to further ensure and fulfill the purpose to control the smog, solve the air pollution, and finally improve the overall air quality.

The United States also experienced serious air pollution. With the end of World War II, many urban areas of the United States began experiencing rapid growth in the economy, which further led to the growth in population, jobs, housing developments, and highways. Large areas of Farmlands began to shrink and sprawling urban development became the commonplace. In California, the Southern Los Angeles region and the Northern San Francisco region became the centers of extreme pollution. As the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions continue to develop, “smog” appeared. In the late 1940s, California scientists began looking for the causes of smog, and in 1950, “Dr. A. J. Haagen-Smit, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology, discovered that 69 photochemical reactions were responsible for ozone formation — smog’s primary ingredient”(Liang, 68–69). In 1955, the US Congress passed the first federal air pollution control legislation in history, the “Air Pollution Control Act” (Wang, Zhang Lv, 55). To further ensure people’s health, “the US Congress enacted the “Clean Air Act” in 1963 and the “Air Quality Control Act” in 1967” (Du, Yang, Dong, Zhang, Fan, 62). However, the serious situation still did not get in control. The situation became the worst in the late 1960s and 70s. The L.A. and San Francisco region exceeded the ozone standard almost 100 times per year and about 75% of citizens suffer from pink eye (Liang, 70) (Wang, Zhang, Lv, 55). As the smog got more and more serious, the United States quickly started to think of more solutions. Finally in 1970, the United States government announced the most essential act towards solving the smog problem, the “1970 Amendments of the Clean Air Act”. The same year, based on the act, the U.S. government also created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Du, Yang, Dong, Zhang, Fan, 62). Among the extensive provisions of the 1970 “Clean Air Act”, there were four requirements that have been key to promoting cleaner air and overall better air quality throughout the country. First was the establishment of health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). These new standards enabled the use of “health effects research and epidemiological studies to set air quality standards to protect public human health” (Liang, 69). The basic premise of the “Clean Air Act” was the right of all Americans to breathe healthy air. Thus, “the EPA establishes the ozone, particulate and PM2.5 air quality standards to prevent adverse health effects among the population, including sensitive groups such as the very young and seniors” (Liang, 69) Second, the act required all states to prepare State Implementation Plans (SIP) to meet the NAAQS. The Key requirements of the SIP “were to include enforceable control measures and demonstrate quantitatively when and how the SIP met the NAAQS” (Liang, 70). Third, the act set fixed deadlines for achieving each requirement. The SIP needed to include specific timelines for each control measure, which “was responsible for implementing the measure and how much air pollutant reduction would be achieved from the measure” (Liang, 70). Collectively, the total SIP needed to show how all the measures would be sufficient to reduce pollutant emissions to levels which would allow for the standards to be met by a fixed deadline. Last but not least, the act allowed for citizen lawsuits to enforce the SIP. Government agencies at the local, regional, state and federal levels were responsible for carrying out the various measures in the SIP. In most cases, the deadlines were very tight and stringent to meet. If the various governmental agencies were too slow or unable to carry out all their responsibilities, the “Clean Air Act” allowed ordinary citizens to sue the governmental agencies to carry out their duties if they failed in carrying them out. After more than 40 years of comprehensive air pollution controls, California’s air quality finally reaches the healthy and clean level.

Another country that experienced a huge economic boom after World War II was Japan, China’s neighbor. Same with China, Japan also experienced the extreme air pollution brought by the rapid economic boom. In 1968, Japan enacted the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act”, in addition, there are related air pollution prevention and control content in the “Electrical Business Law”, “Gas Business Law”, “Road Traffic Law” and “Road Transport Vehicle Law” and other laws (Du, Yang, Dong, Zhang, Fan, 62). In 1962, Japan implemented the “Smoke Control Law” to effectively curb sulfur dioxide pollution and stipulated the concentration standard of sulfur dioxide emissions in designated areas. In 1970, the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act” was significantly revised to limit sulfur dioxide emissions in all regions of the country. It also imposes heavy fines on excessive emissions, and stipulates fuel standards for special regions. The implementation of the act promoted low-sulfur fuel structure, “stimulated large factories to launch specific standards and measures, which greatly improved the sulfur dioxide pollution in Japan” (Du, Yang, Dong, Zhang, Fan, 62) (Zhao, 40). In 1990, the Japanese government revised the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act” and set the amount of pollution charges and penalty standards. And accordingly, the act enabled Japanese residents to have the following rights: require environmental protection agencies to investigate pollution sources and publish the results of the investigation; require the government to impose restrictions on development plans and construction projects that may cause environmental damage and pollution sources; and require the establishment of Resident Representatives (Du, Yang, Dong, Zhang, Fan, 63) (Zhao, 42). Japan formulated the total air pollution control standards and drafted the total reduction plans, and enabled the public to understand and set the requirements, which further ensured that public opinions were reflected and implemented in environmental supervision and management. Based on these methods, the standards can be constantly and continuously updated towards solving the air pollution problem and improving the overall quality. Along with the overall public attention and the serious attitude towards improving the air quality, Japan has become one of the cleanest countries in the world.

After comparing the pollution solving process in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, it is clear that each country has many unique ways and strategies of solving air pollution problems and improving the overall air quality. However, looking from a bigger picture, they share much more similarities. All three countries went through the process of implementing numerous acts specifically towards solving air pollution and the smog. These acts all cover numerous aspects and implement specific requirements and standards both on the authorities and the public. Most importantly, these acts all give ordinary people the rights to supervise and further control the authorities to fulfill their duties. These similarities are also the essentials for those countries to successfully solve air pollution problems and improve the overall air quality. So in comparison to those developed countries, how is China doing in the process?

The Chinese government has spent huge time and effort on solving the air pollution problem in Beijing in the past years. The first and most apparent method they used is to move most of the factories in the outskirts of Beijing to other nearby cities and provinces, and further put restrictions on the emissions of the remaining factories (Liang). With the factories moving out in recent years, the government also started the new “green area” project in Beijing. The greening started on the original spaces of the factories, outskirts of Beijing and further expanded into the cities (Ye, Liang). However, in order to change the overall inner-environment of Beijing, the government has also focused on solving the biggest “culprit” of air pollution, the motor-vehicle. All the way back to 2008, the year of the “Beijing Olympics”, Beijing started the “Car Number Traveling Restriction” policy (Ma). This policy put restrictions on the usage of private cars. Based on the last number of your number plate, there is one day of the weekdays that you cannot travel, and all cars can travel on the weekends. Furthermore, in 2011, Beijing started a new “Car Purchase Sortition” policy, which restricts personal and private car purchase by the method of sortition (Xue). If you don’t have a car, you have to go through this random process in order to have the chance of getting a car. If you already have a car and car number, you can change your number when you buy a new car, but you cannot go through the sortition process anymore. This policy restricts and ensures one person can only have one car and car number. These two restriction policies drastically reduced the usage of private cars, and at the same time encouraged much more usage of public transportations.

It is apparent that China has learned and borrowed many ideas and strategies from the developed countries’ experiences, at the same time, the government implemented many unique strategies in Beijing, which both work really well. However, in order to further improve the overall air quality in China, it is important to think about what China is still lacking compared with the developed countries. Here are the three things that I think China still needs to work on. First of all, acts lack comprehensiveness. Although China implemented many acts towards solving the air pollution problem, current acts only cover partial areas of the pollution and many of the essential areas are still empty. Second, lack of specific requirements in the acts. Many of the acts provide an overall general requirement, but do not provide accurate ways of achieving the goals. Lastly and most importantly, lack of public attention and penalty. If a country wants to improve the overall air and environmental quality, the acts and policies are never enough. The acts should provide more penalty for violations and at the same time provide people with the rights to supervise the authorities. Finally, it is also important for China and other countries that have air pollution problems to know that learning from experienced countries is just part of the process. Pollution is never a local problem, but always a global problem. Every country is different and special, each country needs its own unique and special ways to solve the pollution problems, which ultimately needs everyone’s work.

Work Cited

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