Air Pollution and Environmental Policies, EU and Romania: Where We Stand, What the Data Reveals, What Should Be Done in the Future?

The Chinese government has implemented a number of environmental policies to promote the continuous improvement of air quality while considering economic development. Scientific assessment of the impact of environmental policies on the relationship between air pollution and economic growth can provide a scientific basis for promoting the coordinated development of these two factors. This paper uses the Tapio decoupling theory to analyze the relationship between regional economic growth and air pollution in key regions of air pollution control in China—namely, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and surrounding areas (BTHS), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and the Pearl River Delta (PRD)—based on data of GDP and the concentrations of SO2, PM10, and NO2 for 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2019. The results show that the SO2, PM10, and NO2 pollution in the key regions show strong and weak decoupling. The findings additionally indicate that government policies have played a significant role in improving the decoupling between air pollution and economic development. The decoupling between economic growth and SO2 and PM10 pollution in the BTHS, YRD, and PRD is better than that in other regions, while the decoupling between economic growth and NO2 pollution has not improved significantly in these regions. To improve the relationship between economic growth and air pollution, we suggest that the governments of China and other developing countries should further optimize and adjust the structure of industry, energy, and transportation; apply more stringent targets and measures in areas of serious air pollution; and strengthen mobile vehicle pollution control.

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Future changes in Beijing haze events under different shared socioeconomic pathways

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5787 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liang Guo ◽

Laura Wilcox ◽

Massimo Bollasina ◽

Steven Turnock ◽

Marianne Lund ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Global Warming ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Weather Patterns ◽

Greenhouse Gases Emissions ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Future ◽

Aerosol Emissions

The occurrence of severe haze events remains a serious problem in Beijing. Previous studies suggested that the frequency of weather patterns conducive to haze may increase with global warming. The new Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) cover a wide range of uncertainties in aerosol and greenhouse gases emissions. Global and Chinese aerosol emissions are projected to decrease in most SSPs, while increases in greenhouse gases and global warming will continue for the rest of the century. The future, therefore, remains unclear.We quantified the air pollution over Beijing and associated weather patterns using multiple indices calculated from the SSPsWe show that the occurrence of weather patterns conducive to the formation of haze significantly increases by the end of the century due to increases in greenhouse gases. Aerosol reductions also cause an increase in their occurrence, but reduce the severity of haze, and overall reducing aerosol emissions will be beneficial.

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Historical and future temporal trends in the summer Urban Heat Island of Athens (Greece)

10.5194/ems2021-318 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tim van der Schriek ◽

Konstantinos V. Varotsos ◽

Dimitra Founda ◽

Christos Giannakopoulos

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Temperature Data ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Heat Island ◽

Hot Days ◽

The Future ◽

Urban Heat

Historical changes, spanning 1971&#8211;2016, in the Athens Urban Heat Island (UHI) over summer were assessed by contrasting two air temperature records from established meteorological stations in urban and rural settings. When contrasting two 20-year historical periods (1976&#8211;1995 and 1996&#8211;2015), there is a significant difference in summer UHI regimes. The stronger UHI-intensity of the second period (1996&#8211;2015) is likely linked to increased pollution and heat input. Observations suggest that the Athens summer UHI characteristics even fluctuate on multi-annual basis. Specifically, the reduction in air pollution during the Greek Economic Recession (2008-2016) probable subtly changed the UHI regime, through lowering the frequencies of extremely hot days (Tmax > 37 &#176;C) and nights (Tmin > 26 &#176;C).Subsequently, we examined the future temporal trends of two different UHIs in Athens (Greece) under three climate change scenarios. A five-member regional climate model (RCM) sub-ensemble from EURO-CORDEX with a horizontal resolution of 0.11&#176; (~12 &#215; 12 km) simulated air temperature data, spanning the period 1976&#8211;2100, for the two station sites. Three future emissions scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) were implanted in the simulations after 2005. The observed daily maximum and minimum air temperature data (Tmax and Tmin) from two historical UHI regimes (1976&#8211;1995 and 1996&#8211;2015, respectively) were used, separately, to bias-adjust the model simulations thus creating two sets of results.This novel approach allowed us to assess future temperature developments in Athens under two different UHI intensity regimes. We found that the future frequency of days with Tmax > 37 &#176;C in Athens was only different from rural background values under the intense UHI regime. There is a large increase in the future frequency of nights with Tmin > 26 &#176;C in Athens under all UHI regimes and climate scenarios; these events remain comparatively rare at the rural site.This study shows a large urban amplification of the frequency of extremely hot days and nights which is likely forced by increasing air pollution and heat input. Consequently, local mitigation policies aimed at decreasing urban atmospheric pollution are expected to be also effective in reducing urban temperatures during extreme heat events in Athens under all future climate change scenarios. Such policies therefore have multiple benefits, including: reducing electricity (energy) needs, improving living quality and decreasing heat- and pollution related illnesses/deaths.&#160;

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