{"id":180326,"date":"2025-12-12T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180326\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:45:09","slug":"what-new-delhi-can-learn-from-chinas-war-on-air-pollution-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180326\/","title":{"rendered":"What New Delhi can learn from China\u2019s war on air pollution | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The air quality in New Delhi and its surrounding areas has turned hazardous as a dense layer of smog blanketed the Indian capital. Several parts of Delhi recorded<\/a> an air quality index (AQI) of 400 and even 450 \u2013 a level considered as \u201csevere\u201d under international pollution standards.<\/p>\n

Every winter, air pollution in Delhi spikes around this time when cold air traps smoke and fumes from fireworks, stubble burning and heavy traffic. The crisis is aggravated by vehicular and industrial emissions, massive road dust, construction activities and coal and biomass-fired residential heating.<\/p>\n

As dozens of Indian cities grapple with \u201cpoor\u201d or \u201cvery poor\u201d air quality, per India\u2019s pollution watchdog, China serves as a model for its neighbouring nation. Beijing, through stringent measures and effective air pollution control policies, has made a considerable effort to improve its air quality while also achieving impressive economic growth.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, Beijing was crowned as the world\u2019s\u00a0smog capital. China\u2019s\u00a0temporary<\/a> emission reduction regulations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics set the stage for its war on air pollution. With the launch<\/a> of a five-year national action plan in 2013, the country introduced a raft of measures, including the closure of coal-fired boilers, promoting public transport and new energy vehicles, accelerating technological reform of enterprises and boosting innovation and green energy.<\/p>\n

Special emphasis was given to slashing the \u201cparticulate matter (PM2.5)\u201d. These inhalable particles, equal or less than 2.5 microns<\/a>\u00a0in diameter, are a major source of air pollution and pose\u00a0the greatest\u00a0danger\u00a0to human health over their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s efforts, coupled with the establishment of an early warning and emergency response system, better regulation<\/a> of pollution activities, relocation of factories from populated areas and incentives for farmers to discourage agricultural burning, made a lasting impact, showing a dramatic 35 percent improvement in highly polluted areas by 2017.<\/p>\n

In the following years, Beijing continued its campaign against air pollution. Average PM2.5 concentration<\/a> dropped by a half, from 72 micrograms per cubic metre (\u03bcg\/m\u00b3) in 2013 to 36\u03bcg\/m\u00b3 in 2019, dropping further to 29.3\u03bcg\/m\u00b3<\/a>\u00a0in 2024. Although substantially higher than the World Health Organization\u2019s\u00a0guidelines<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 5\u03bcg\/m\u00b3 \u2013 it still marked a major breakthrough in China\u2019s push against air pollution.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, China sustained its\u00a0battle<\/a>\u00a0for blue skies, rolling out targeted air pollution control policies such as limiting construction-related emissions, deploying clean industrial technologies, cutting steel production, retiring old cars and encouraging the adoption of electric energy vehicles. The measures paid dividends as China\u2019s capital\u00a0transformed<\/a> from an environmental backwater into an emblematic case of urban air quality governance. Blue skies are indeed back in Beijing, given PM2.5 concentration averaged<\/a>\u00a024.9\u03bcg\/m\u00b3 in the first three quarters of 2025, per the government.<\/p>\n

The recent improvement builds on prior gains. In 2022, average annual PM2.5 concentration across China\u00a0fell<\/a> to 29\u03bcg\/m\u00b3, according to Chinese media, and the number of days classified as having good air quality in 339 cities reached 316 \u2013 a progress not many regional countries could match. As many parts of the world\u00a0experienced<\/a>\u00a0rising PM2.5 levels, China\u2019s steep reductions were so substantial that they single-handedly drove a decline in global pollution, highlighting the country\u2019s outsized contribution to improving air quality worldwide.<\/p>\n

Independent research supports the data. Thanks to timely government\u00a0intervention<\/a>, strong coordination between local and central administrations and international financial institutions, the Greater Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region notched a significant achievement. According to the Asian Development Bank, the region has made major gains in air quality: between 2015 and 2023, average annual PM2.5 levels fell by 44.2 percent, sulphur dioxide by 76.3 percent and nitrogen dioxide by 34.8 percent, while the share of days with good air quality rose by 10.3 points to 63.1 percent.<\/p>\n

Experts\u00a0underscore<\/a> that China\u2019s environmental frameworks have boosted cross-sector cooperation and spurred active participation from industries that were once major polluters. Over the years, Beijing has developed the world\u2019s largest and most comprehensive new energy industrial chain. Its leadership<\/a> in producing renewable energy and manufacturing electric vehicles positions it at the centre of the global clean energy transition, making it an important actor to combat air pollution at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

With Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) growing by more than 73 percent between 2013 and 2024 and PM2.5 concentrations plunging to 26\u03bcg\/m\u00b3 in the January-September period, the country demonstrates how a consistent, policy-driven approach can maintain a high growth rate and still strive to deliver clean air to its people. This experience offers a precedent for India and other nations, pursuing to curb pollution without impeding their development goals.<\/p>\n

Air pollution is the\u00a0greatest\u00a0environmental health risk. It knows no borders, exacerbates climate change, causes economic losses and reduces agricultural productivity. Even in China, where\u00a0three-quarters\u00a0of cities met their annual PM2.5 targets in 2024, the monster is\u00a0resurging\u00a0sharply across several regions, urging Beijing to intensify its own measures and ensure enforcement.<\/p>\n

The scale of this challenge necessitates strengthening cooperation and sharing best practices, particularly among countries in\u00a0South, Southeast and East Asia that are worst affected. Being at the forefront of the air pollution crisis \u2013 what China faced a decade earlier amid rapid development and urbanisation \u2013 India cannot afford to be complacent in drawing valuable\u00a0lessons both from Chinese past successes and nascent challenges.<\/p>\n

By adopting elements of China\u2019s clean-air playbook \u2013 from shutting down highly polluting factories and expanding electric bus fleets to establishing real-time dust monitoring at construction sites and reinforcing interprovincial coordination \u2013 India could make meaningful progress in securing cleaner air and a sustainable future for its people, while advancing its own development and economic growth.<\/p>\n

The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera\u2019s editorial stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The air quality in New Delhi and its surrounding areas has turned hazardous as a dense layer of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2300,1758,607,273,2344,111,139,69,34323,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-180326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-asia-pacific","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-opinions","17":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}