Metropolitan air pollution abatement and industrial growth: Global urban panel analysis of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and SO2

Air pollution, particularly particulate matter (PM2.5) levels, was a significant focus at the COP26 summit. Rampant production practices and changing lifestyles contribute to the issue globally. China's rapid urbanization and reliance on fossil fuels significantly threaten global health sustainability. This study aims to evaluate China's environmental agenda and offer policy recommendations for achieving a green and clean environment. To accomplish this, the study assesses the crucial factors contributing to China's air pollution levels, focusing specifically on fine PM2.5 from 1975 to 2020. By implementing the ARDL bounds testing approach, the study confirmed a non‐linear relationship between per capita income and PM2.5, demonstrating an inverted U‐shaped curve with a turning point observed at a per capita income level of US$3030 in the short run. Furthermore, a positive correlation between these variables was detected in the long run. The study also revealed that rapid urbanization initially leads to increased PM2.5 concentrations, whereas it has a decreasing effect in the long term. To progress towards sustainable production and consumption, China has embraced efficient environmental technologies and increasing clean energy sources in its production mix. Leveraging these strategies, the country strives to achieve its decarbonization agenda and ensure a cleaner future. By conducting an ex ante analysis, this study identified ecological technologies, renewable energy demand and oil resource rents as critical influencers on China's air pollution levels over the next decade. The findings underscore the pressing need to embrace alternative energy sources, eco‐friendly technologies and resource conservation to tackle air pollution effectively and accomplish China's decarbonization objectives. It is imperative to prioritize adopting sustainable practices, ensuring a cleaner environment for current and future generations.

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“…(2022) and Leffel et al. (2022) all underlined industrialization's harmful effects on air quality and ecology.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Urbanization, automation and population increase in transitional economies have degraded air quality. He et al (2022), Li, Wang et al (2022) and Leffel et al (2022) all underlined industrialization's harmful effects on air quality and ecology.…”

Section: Ardl Bounds Estimates and Ekc Turning Pointmentioning

confidence: 99%

From pollution to progress: Exploring the role of cleaner technology, energy efficiency and sustainable production in reducing PM2.5 levels in China

et al. 2023

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“…To realize the current situation of air pollution in Lahore, the PM 2.5 concentration data were obtained as well as evaluated (WHO standard PM 2.5 concentrations ~25 µg/m 3 ). The industrial growth, traffic, and seasonal changes were the main contributing factors to indoor pollution [50,51]. During winter and post-monsoon season in Lahore, the high PM concentrations have been observed due to the excessive burning of plant residues [52].…”

Section: Indoor Particulate Matter and Dust Ingestionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Indoor Air Pollution in Pakistan—Causes and Management

et al. 2023

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This state-of-the-art review is designed to provide a factual analysis of indoor air pollution in Pakistan. Primarily, the main sources of indoor air pollution and related air pollutants were analyzed. Key sources of indoor air pollution include household energy sources (biomass, wood, coal, tobacco, and low temperatures) producing particulate matter (PM), dust particles, smoke, COx, noxious gases, bioaerosols, airborne microflora, and flame retardants. According to the literature, rural regions of Pakistan using biomass indoor fuels have a high indoor PM concentration in the range of 4000–9000 μg/m3. In rural/urban regions, indoor smoking also leads to high PM2.5 levels of ~1800 μg/m3, which can cause pulmonary infections. In hospitals, PM concentrations were detected up to 1000 μg/m3, causing repeated infections in patients. Indoor ingestion of dust containing polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations was observed at high levels (~8.79–34.39 ng/g) in cities; this can cause serious health effects such as cancer risks and a loss of working productivity. Moreover, indoor microflora and bacteria (~10,000–15,000 cfu m−3) in urban/rural regions cause respiratory/cancer risks. In this context, indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring and management strategies have been somewhat developed; however, their implementation in Pakistan’s rural/urban indoor environments is still needed. Various challenges were identified for monitoring/regulating IAQ. There is a firm need for industry–academia–research cooperation and for the involvement of government/agencies to support indoor air pollution control/management and for intervention strategies.

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“…However, a growing number of scholars believe that povertystricken policies should take into account environmental effects and give due consideration to the elimination of multidimensional poverty as a way to promote sustainable development strategies (Brooks et al, 2012;Leffel et al, 2022;Porras and Asquith, 2018). For example, Barbier argues that emissions reduction policy may affect economic development for poverty reduction and that there is a need to assess how the design and implementation of emissions reduction policy affect the potential trade-offs between positive and negative impacts on poverty reduction and to study emissions reduction and poverty reduction together (Barbier, 2014); Howe argues that there are complex interlinkages between ecology and poverty and that it is important to develop policy in these areas recognize the importance of these linkages and study them together (Howe et al, 2013); Meijaard argues that previous studies have focused on the environmental outcomes of policy and ignored their economic consequences, and that there is now a need to focus on the impact of policy on both poverty reduction and environmental protection outcomes (Meijaard et al, 2020); Brashares argues that poverty is a key constraint on environmental protection, that poverty must be addressed to achieve environmental protection goals, and that environmental Frontiers in Environmental Science frontiersin.org protection activities must not undermine poverty reduction, so that environment and poverty need to be studied in a unified framework (Brashares et al, 2004); Huang argues that scholars should not only focus on the poverty alleviation effects of policy, but also on the multidimensional improvement effects of policy, and that the assessment of policy should be comprehensive (F. B.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does China’s poverty alleviation policy improve the quality of the ecological environment in poverty-stricken areas?

Ran

Hua

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Poverty eradication and environmental protection as the two global goals of sustainable development. China’s poverty alleviation policy attempts to achieve green development in poverty-stricken areas by eliminating poverty while also promoting environmental protection. Since the Poverty-stricken counties on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau also have the dual attributes of ecological degradation and ecological fragility, it is of great significance to study the impact of poverty alleviation policy on their environment. In this research, taking poverty alleviation policy as the entry point, based on panel data and Remote Sensing Ecological Index for poverty-stricken counties on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 2011 to 2019, and using the difference-in-differences (DID) method to verify the impact of policy on environmental quality. The main findings of the study were: 1) The poverty alleviation policy has a significant improvement effect on the ecological environment quality of counties in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, and this conclusion still holds in a series of robustness tests using methods including the changing sample size method and the variable replacement method. Moreover, the policy effect has a certain time lag and its effect persists in the long term; 2) It is mainly due to the increased level of government public expenditure and the easing of government financial pressure that has contributed to the improvement of environmental quality in poverty-stricken areas; 3) Policy heterogeneity suggests that industrial poverty eradication policies are more conducive to promoting synergistic economic and environmental development in poverty-stricken areas.

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Metropolitan air pollution abatement and industrial growth: Global urban panel analysis of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂ and SO₂

Cited by 16 publications

References 83 publications

From pollution to progress: Exploring the role of cleaner technology, energy efficiency and sustainable production in reducing PM2.5 levels in China

From pollution to progress: Exploring the role of cleaner technology, energy efficiency and sustainable production in reducing PM2.5 levels in China

Impact of Indoor Air Pollution in Pakistan—Causes and Management

Does China’s poverty alleviation policy improve the quality of the ecological environment in poverty-stricken areas?

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