TY - JOUR
T1 - Taking action on air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region
T2 - Progress, challenges and opportunities
AU - Wang, Li
AU - Zhang, Fengying
AU - Pilot, Eva
AU - Yu, Jie
AU - Nie, Chengjing
AU - Holdaway, Jennifer
AU - Yang, Linsheng
AU - Li, Yonghua
AU - Wang, Wuyi
AU - Vardoulakis, Sotiris
AU - Krafft, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0801004), National Science Foundation of China (NO. 41401101; NO. 41371118) and the Social Science Foundation of Hebei province (NO. HB15GL087). Special thanks goes to the Forum on Health, Environment and Development (FORHEAD) for providing suggestions on interdisciplinary research. The authors also would like to thank the interviewees who participated this study.
Funding Information:
The working group includes the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Meteorological Bureau, the Energy Bureau, and the Ministry of Transport. The working group makes the annual plans on emission decreasing tasks and implements the tasks; and makes the medium and long term planning on regional air pollution control.
Funding Information:
This study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0801004), National Science Foundation of China (NO. 41401101; NO. 41371118) and the Social Science Foundation of Hebei province (NO. HB15GL087). Special thanks goes to the Forum on Health, Environment and Development (FORHEAD) for providing suggestions on interdisciplinary research. The authors also would like to thank the interviewees who participated this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/2/9
Y1 - 2018/2/9
N2 - Due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and motorization, a large number of Chinese cities are affected by heavy air pollution. In order to explore progress, remaining challenges, and sustainability of air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region after 2013, a mixed method analysis was undertaken. The quantitative analysis comprised an overview of air quality management in the BTH region. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with 12 stakeholders from various levels of government and research institutions who played substantial roles either in decision-making or in research and advising on air pollution control in the BTH region. The results indicated that with the stringent air pollution control policies, the air quality in BTH meets the targets of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. However, improvements vary across the region and for different pollutants. Although implementation has been decisive and was at least in parts effectively enforced, significant challenges remained with regard to industrial and traffic emission control, and national air quality limits continued to be significantly exceeded and competing development interests remained mainly unsolved. There were also concerns about the sustainability of the current air pollution control measures especially for industries due to the top-down enforcement, and the associated large burden of social cost including unemployment and social inequity resulting industrial restructuring. Better mechanisms for ensuring cross-sectoral coordination and for improved central-local government communication were suggested. Further suggestions were provided to improve the conceptual design and effective implementation of respective air pollution control strategies in BTH. Our study highlights some of the major hurdles that need to be addressed to succeed with a comprehensive air pollution control management for the Chinese mega-urban agglomerations.
AB - Due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and motorization, a large number of Chinese cities are affected by heavy air pollution. In order to explore progress, remaining challenges, and sustainability of air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region after 2013, a mixed method analysis was undertaken. The quantitative analysis comprised an overview of air quality management in the BTH region. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with 12 stakeholders from various levels of government and research institutions who played substantial roles either in decision-making or in research and advising on air pollution control in the BTH region. The results indicated that with the stringent air pollution control policies, the air quality in BTH meets the targets of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. However, improvements vary across the region and for different pollutants. Although implementation has been decisive and was at least in parts effectively enforced, significant challenges remained with regard to industrial and traffic emission control, and national air quality limits continued to be significantly exceeded and competing development interests remained mainly unsolved. There were also concerns about the sustainability of the current air pollution control measures especially for industries due to the top-down enforcement, and the associated large burden of social cost including unemployment and social inequity resulting industrial restructuring. Better mechanisms for ensuring cross-sectoral coordination and for improved central-local government communication were suggested. Further suggestions were provided to improve the conceptual design and effective implementation of respective air pollution control strategies in BTH. Our study highlights some of the major hurdles that need to be addressed to succeed with a comprehensive air pollution control management for the Chinese mega-urban agglomerations.
KW - Air pollution
KW - Air pollution prevention and control action plan
KW - Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
KW - Semi-structured interview
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042058890&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph15020306
DO - 10.3390/ijerph15020306
M3 - Article
C2 - 29425189
AN - SCOPUS:85042058890
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 15
SP - 1
EP - 27
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 2
M1 - 306
ER -
