Air pollution levels in China fell a “remarkable” 42.3% between 2013 and 2021, according to this year’s Air Quality Life Index from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC).

The report found that, if sustained, this pollution reduction will extend the average Chinese citizen’s life expectancy by 2.2 years. “That is outstanding, rapid progress over a single decade,” Christa Hasenkopf, director of air quality programmes at EPIC, told China Dialogue.

Autumn 2013 was a turning point for air pollution in China, when the State Council released its “Air pollution prevention and control action plan”. The following year, then-premier Li Keqiang told the National People’s Congress: “We must be as resolute in the war on pollution as we are in the war on poverty”. In 2018, the action plan was succeeded by the “Three-year plan on defending the blue sky”, which brought more cities under air quality management targets.

The progress on air pollution is well illustrated by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which has been China’s most polluted since 1998. Between 2013 and 2021, control measures achieved a 53% drop in airborne particulate concentrations. Following such success, the region’s leading group on air pollution control was disbanded in October this year.

Continue reading on China Dialogue…