Abstract
Air pollution is one of China’s most prevalent environmental issues, and it comes at an annual cost of over 1 million lives and around 0.66% of China’s GDP. Economic growth coupled with extensive motorisation has caused transport and specifically road transport to be a key contributor to air pollution through the emissions of PM2.5, NOx and O3 in particular. The Chinese government, over the last decade, has introduced an ambitious set of policies and measures to improve air quality, increasingly integrating its management with climate change management. This chapter provides an overview of general air quality policy frameworks and the measures that are specifically directed at reducing the transport impact. These include national emission standards, fuel consumption targets and fuel quality standards and the electrification of the vehicle fleet, for both private and public transport. Assessing the impact of these individual measures is difficult due to the multiple factors that determine air quality, although generally emissions of some air pollutants have decreased significantly in recent years—but others persisted or became worse.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
World Bank, World Development Indicators; DataBank (2020). https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=World-Development-Indicators. Accessed 15 June 2020
National Bureau of Statistics China, National Data (2019 and previous years). http://data.stats.gov.cn/english/Statisticaldata/AnnualData/. Accessed 14 June 2020
Global Road Links, Derived from data of the World Bank Development Indicators and from M. Crippa, G. Oreggioni, D. Guizzardi, M. Muntean, E. Schaaf, E. Lo Vullo, E. Solazzo, F. Monforti-Ferrario, J.G.J. Olivier, E. Vignati (2019) Fossil CO2 and GHG emissions of all world countries—2019 Report, EUR 29849 EN, Luxemburg: Publications Office of the European Union. ISBN 978-92-76-11100-9. https://doi.org/10.2760/687800, JRC117610. Dataset name: EDGARv5.0_FT2018. Accessed 11 June 2020
WHO, WHO Global Ambient Air Quality Database (Update 2018) (2018). http://www.who.int/airpollution/data/cities/en/. Accessed 12 June 2020
Y. Gu, T.W. Wong, C.K. Law, G.H. Dong, K.F. Ho, Y. Yang, S.H.L. Yim, Impacts of sectoral emissions in china and the implications: air quality, public health, crop production, and economic costs. Environmental Research Letters. 13(8), 084008 (2018)
Cohen et al., Estimates and 25-year trends of the global burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution: an analysis of data from the global burden of disease study 2015. Lancet 389, 1907–1918 (2017)
G. Baiyu, China’s Road Freight Problem and Its Solutions| China Dialogue (2020). https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11908-China-s-road-freight-problem-and-its-solutions. Accessed 12 June 2020
Junyu Zheng, Lijun Zhang, Wenwei Che, Zhuoyun Zheng, Shasha Yin, A highly resolved temporal and spatial air pollutant emission inventory for the pearl river delta region, china and its uncertainty assessment. Atmos. Environ. 43(32), 5112–5122 (2009)
C.-L. Chen, H. Pan, Q. Shen, J.J. Want, Handbook on Transport and Urban Transformation in China, 1st edn (Edward Elger Publishing, 2020)
J. Poushter, Car, bike or motorcycle? Depends on where you live. Pew Res. Centre (2015). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/16/car-bike-or-motorcycle-depends-on-where-you-live/. Accessed 17 June 2020
Jianlei Lang, Shuiyan Cheng, Ying Zhou, Yonglin Zhang, Gang Wang, Air pollutant emissions from on-road vehicles in China, 1999–2011. Sci. Total Environ. 496, 1–10 (2014)
China Energy Portal. (2018). https://chinaenergyportal.org/. Accessed 16 June 2020
Global Road Links, Derived from data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2019 and previous years)
Yana Jin, Henrik Andersson, Shiqiu Zhang, Air pollution control policies in china: A retrospective and prospects. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 13(12), 1219 (2016)
L. Zhang, Regulation of air pollution. Library of Congress (2018). https://www.loc.gov/law/help/air-pollution/china.php. Accessed 12 June 2020
State Council of the People’s Republic of China, China to invest big in ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy (2017). http://english.www.gov.cn/state_council/ministries/2017/10/12/content_281475904600274.htm. Accessed 17 June 2020
T. Ma, L. Qin, China Reshapes Ministries to Better Protect Environment (2018). https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10502-China-reshapes-ministries-to-better-protect-environment. Accessed 12 June 2020
C. Nedopil Wang, Green public transport innovation in China—An opportunity for BRI countries—Green Belt and Road Initiative Center (2019). https://green-bri.org/green-public-transport-innovation-in-china-an-opportunity-for-bri-countries. Accessed 12 June 2020
T. Baxter, Z. Yao, The 14th Five Year Plan: What Ideas Are on the Table? Chinadialogue.Net (2019). https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11434-The-14th-Five-Year-Plan-what-ideas-are-on-the-table. Accessed 14 June 2020
TransportPolicy.net., China: Light-Duty: Emissions| Transport Policy (2018). https://www.transportpolicy.net/standard/china-light-duty-emissions/. Accessed 12 June 2020
DNV-GL, New Requirements for NOx Emissions for Vessels Engaged in Chinese Domestic Trade (2018). https://www.dnvgl.com/news/new-requirements-for-nox-emissions-for-vessels-engaged-in-chinese-domestic-trade-125086. Accessed 12 June 2020
TransportPolicy.net., China: Fuels: Diesel and Gasoline| Transport Policy (2018). https://www.transportpolicy.net/standard/china-fuels-diesel-and-gasoline/. Accessed 12 June 2020
Asian Development Bank (ADB), Promoting inland waterway transport in the People’s Republic of China (2016)
World Bank and PRTM Management Consultants, Inc., The China New Energy Vehicles Program; Challenges and Opportunities (World Bank Group, 2011)
International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2019; Scaling-Up the Transition to Electric Mobility (2018)
Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change (Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing, 2019)
International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2019; Scaling-up the transition to electric mobility (2019)
C. Randall, China Extends but Changes NEV Subsidies until 2022. Electrive.com (2020). https://www.electrive.com/2020/04/24/china-extends-nev-subsidies-til-2022/. Accessed 15 June 2020
D. Ren, Shenzhen’s All-Electric Bus Fleet Is a World’s First That Comes with Massive Government Funding. South China Morning Post (2018). https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/2169709/shenzhens-all-electric-bus-fleet-worlds-first-comes-massive. Accessed 12 June 2020
Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, China Tackles Climate Change with Electric Buses (2018). https://www.itdp.org/2018/09/11/electric-buses-china/. Accessed 15 June 2020
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Electric Buses in Cities; Driving Towards Cleaner Air and Lower CO2. Bloomberg Finance L.P (2018)
B. Dooley, Beijing slashes traffic in pollution red alert (2015). http://news.yahoo.com/beijing-traffic-cut-schools-closed-due-pollution-red-035635673.html. Accessed 17 June 2020
The Economist, The Great Crawl. The Economist. 16 June (2016). https://www.economist.com/china/2016/06/16/the-great-crawl. Accessed 21 June 2020
F. Hao, China Releases 2020 Action Plan for Air Pollution (2018). https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10711-China-releases-2-2-action-plan-for-air-pollution. Accessed 12 June 2020
B. Silver, C.L. Reddington, S.R. Arnold, D.V. Spracklen, Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015–2017. Environ. Res. Lett. 13(11), 114012 (2018)
L. Myllyvirta, Air Pollution in China 2019. Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (2020)
Y. Feng, Y. Miao Ning, Y.S. Lei, Wei Liu, J. Wang, Defending Blue Sky in China: Effectiveness of the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan” on Air Quality Improvements from 2013 to 2017. J. Environ. Manage. 252, 109603 (2019)
P.N. Kishimoto, V.J. Karplus, M. Zhong, E. Saikawa, X. Zhang, X. Zhang, The impact of coordinated policies on air pollution emissions from road transportation in China. Transp. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ. 54, 30–49 (2017)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Visser, C., Gonzalez, C. (2021). Transportation Air Pollution in China: The Ongoing Challenge to Achieve a ‘Blue Sky’. In: Brewer, T. (eds) Transportation Air Pollutants. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59691-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59691-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59690-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59691-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)