Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has developed rapidly and people's living standards have improved substantially, but the traditional development model has paid a heavy price in terms of resources and the environment. There used to be this term called “airpocalypse” in China, a decade ago. A decade later, an unprecedentedly short period for a nation of its GDP and size, China has brought these blue skies - cleaner air - across the country. How did they do it? Tune in this episode of In Fact with Kyle Obermann. #InFact
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00:00So there used to be this term called
00:02airpocalypse in China a decade ago.
00:04In 2016, the New York Times
00:06even ran a piece about the issue
00:08dramatically titled
00:10Life in China, Smothered by Smog.
00:12A decade later,
00:14an unprecedentedly short period
00:16for a nation of its GDP in size,
00:18China has brought these blue skies,
00:20cleaner air, across the country.
00:22Since 2013, the peak
00:24of the airpocalypse era, China has
00:26grown its GDP by 121%,
00:28claimed its eradicated
00:30poverty in the nation, and reduced
00:32PM2.5, small particulate matter,
00:34in its air by 57%.
00:36How did they do it?
00:52Let's go back
00:54to July 2008, a month
00:56before the Olympics in Beijing began.
00:58Groups of athletes were wary of
01:00participating in the games unless Beijing's air
01:02improved.
01:04Now, this air pollution was due to the fact that
01:06in the decades prior, China followed
01:08a similar development path as many
01:10industrialized nations, but at a
01:12larger scale and a quicker speed.
01:14With industrialization,
01:16car ownership exploded.
01:18From 1992, when I was born,
01:20until 2008, vehicle sales in China
01:22increased from about 2 million per year
01:24to almost 10 million.
01:26Predictably, the growth in city
01:28traffic, combined with weak regulation
01:30of industrial emissions that were fueled by coal,
01:32led to smog.
01:34But in the decade leading up to the
01:36Beijing Olympics, Beijing made
01:38$27.5 billion
01:40worth of investment into aggressive
01:42measures to clean up its air, including
01:44reducing coal use by nearly
01:46one-fifth, closing heavily polluting
01:48industrial sites, doubling the number of public
01:50buses, limiting daily car use
01:52by license plate number, and taking
01:54older polluting cars off the road.
01:56During the games, airborne particulate
01:58matter decreased from 50% to 30%.
02:00Researchers called
02:02it the largest effort made in
02:04human history to control air
02:06quality within a short period of time.
02:08But the Olympics
02:10were only a brief respite, or
02:12window into a promised and better future.
02:14By 2013, the smog
02:16had come roaring back. Air pollution
02:18was contributing to 12.6%
02:20of all deaths in China,
02:22and in at least one province,
02:24air pollution was causing an economic loss
02:26equivalent to as much as 4% of the
02:28regional gross domestic product.
02:30The issue of pollution could no longer
02:32take second place to development.
02:34There was no denying one fact.
02:36Something had to change.
02:40So in 2014, the Chinese
02:42government responded by declaring the upcoming decade
02:44a war on air pollution.
02:46They took the measures that had worked during the Beijing
02:48Olympics and implemented them nationwide.
02:50Again, more old cars
02:52were removed, industrial processes
02:54were cleaned, shut down, or relocated,
02:56and coal-fired boilers
02:58for wintertime were replaced with
03:00gas or electric.
03:02By 2017, Beijing had once
03:04again slashed its annual PM2.5
03:06concentrations by 25%.
03:08Other cities like
03:10Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen
03:12had achieved similar gains.
03:14Now yes,
03:16many cities in China have air pollution levels
03:18still over WHO standards.
03:20There is still work to be done.
03:22But to put that into perspective,
03:24only 3% of the world's cities
03:26meet the WHO's air quality guidelines.
03:28No countries do.
03:30So what's notable here is the
03:32unprecedented speed at which China turned
03:34its situation around.
03:36By 2023, China's PM2.5
03:38levels, despite a small increase,
03:40were 57% lower
03:42than they were in 2013.
03:44What's also interesting is how much
03:46China's city situations mirror those
03:48of nations that developed previously
03:50and are developing now.
03:52L.A. was once, like Beijing and now New Delhi,
03:54known as the smog capital
03:56of the world. And London's experience
03:58and response during the Great Smog
04:00in 1952 actually helped
04:02inform Chinese policymakers in China
04:04over half a century later.
04:10So what does this mean for China
04:12and the world?
04:14Most readily apparent are the benefits to
04:16human health. The average Chinese citizen's
04:18lifespan is now 2.2 years
04:20longer due to cleaner air.
04:22And in 2019, a peer-reviewed study
04:24looking back at the 2013-2017
04:26National Air Pollution
04:28Control Plan found that the net
04:30economic benefit of the plan was equivalent
04:32to about $111 billion.
04:34What's more,
04:36cleaner air in China has also
04:38resulted in cleaner air, better health,
04:40and economic benefits for neighboring countries
04:42like South Korea and even places
04:44like California.
04:46Finally, a note on the climate crisis.
04:48Most air pollutants and greenhouse
04:50gases share a similar source,
04:52the burning of fossil fuels.
04:54Altogether, China's clean air actions
04:56from 2013 to 2020
04:58had a climate co-benefit equivalent
05:00to reducing global 2020
05:02CO2 emissions by 5.5%.
05:04So while there are many
05:06ways to develop and grow,
05:08we only have one atmosphere.
05:10And to state the obvious, protecting that
05:12atmosphere is more than worth the cost
05:14to do so. Just like China
05:16learned from and built upon the successes
05:18of places like London, hopefully
05:20other developing nations can now look to
05:22China for lessons and do the same.