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, Keith Goulding and Xuejun Liu ()
Additional contact information
Zhang Wen: China Agricultural University
Xin Ma: China Agricultural University
Wen Xu: China Agricultural University
Ruotong Si: China Agricultural University
Lei Liu: China Agricultural University
Mingrui Ma: Nanjing University
Yuanhong Zhao: Ocean University of China
Aohan Tang: China Agricultural University
Yangyang Zhang: China Agricultural University
Kai Wang: China Agricultural University
Ying Zhang: China Agricultural University
Jianlin Shen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lin Zhang: Peking University
Yu Zhao: Nanjing University
Fusuo Zhang: China Agricultural University
Keith Goulding: Rothamsted Research
Xuejun Liu: China Agricultural University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract 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 PM2.5 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 PM2.5 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 aggressive short-term measures and effective but durable long-term policies delivers sustainable air quality improvement. However, increased ammonia concentrations, transboundary pollutant flows, and the complexity to achieving reduction targets under climate change scenarios, underscore the need for the synergistic control of multiple pollutants and inter-regional action.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49539-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-49539-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49539-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().