Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Combined short-term and long-term emission controls improve air quality sustainably in China

Zhang Wen, Xin Ma, Wen Xu, Ruotong Si, Lei Liu, Mingrui Ma, Yuanhong Zhao, Aohan Tang, Yangyang Zhang, Kai Wang, Ying Zhang, Jianlin Shen, Lin Zhang, Yu Zhao, Fusuo Zhang, K. W. T. Goulding, Xuejun Liu

Nature Communications · 2024

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Summary

The effectiveness of national policies for air pollution control has been demonstrated, but the relative effectiveness of short-term emission reduction measures in comparison with national policies has not. Here we show that short-term abatement measures during important international events substantially reduced PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations, but air quality rebounded to pre-event levels after the measures ceased. Long-term adherence to strict emission reduction policies led to successful decreases of 54% in PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations in Beijing, and 23% in atmospheric nitrogen deposition in China from 2012 to 2020. Incentivized by "blue skies" type campaigns, economic development and reactive nitrogen pollution are quickly decoupled, showing that a combination of inspiring but agg

Source type
Peer-reviewed study
DOI
10.1038/s41467-024-49539-9
Catalogue ID
SNmohku3qn-yi0cem
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