Abstract
Under big challenges to reduce local and regional air pollution, China has been conducting an aggressive policy of energy saving and emission control since 2005. The benefits of the policy on pollutant emissions could be indicated through the inter-annual trends in SO2 and NOX emissions for 2000–2014. From a bottom-up perspective, the policy improved the energy efficiency and elevated the use of emission control devices for power and other big industrial plants, and the emission factors were reduced for most cases. Satellite-derived vertical column densities (VCDs) are used to evaluate the temporal and spatial patterns of emissions across the country. Discrepancy existed in the inter-annual trends between SO2 VCDs and emissions. Such comparison is improved with an optimistic emission case in which the emission standards for selected industrial sectors issued after 2010 had been fully implemented. Suggested by VCDs and the optimistic emission case, SO2 control during the 12th 5-year plan (12th FYP, 2011–2015) period was more effective than that during the 11th FYP period (2006–2010). In contrast to fast growth before 2011 driven by increased coal consumption and limited controls, NOX emissions declined from 2011 to 2014 due to application of selective catalytic/non-catalytic reduction systems in the power sector. Reduced NO2 VCDs were detected, particularly in highly polluted Eastern China and Pearl River Delta regions. Given the strict controls in developed areas, air pollution has been expanding to less-developed neighboring regions. Transportation is playing an increasingly important role in air pollution, suggested by the increased ratio of NO2 to SO2 VCDs. A faster decrease of alkaline base cations than that of SO2 may raise the acidification risks to ecosystems, implying the need of further control of acid precursors.
This chapter is mainly based on previous work of the authors (e.g., Xia et al. 2016).
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Zhao, Y., Xia, Y. (2020). National Regulation of SO2 and NOx Emissions in China. In: Liu, X., Du, E. (eds) Atmospheric Reactive Nitrogen in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8514-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8514-8_14
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