Timeline of pollution in China
From Timelines
This is a timeline of pollution in China.
Contents
Big picture
| Time period | Development summary |
|---|---|
| 1950s | ". Back in the 1950s, Chairman Mao ordered that residents north of the river receive free heating from the coal-powered plants"[1] |
| 1970s | "Economic reforms in the late 1970s that encouraged development in rural industries further exacerbated the problem"[2] China begins to use law to combat pollution and protect its natural environment.[3] |
| 1980s | "Epidemiological studies conducted since the 1980s in northern China suggest that poor air quality in Chinese cities causes significant health complications, including respiratory, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases"[2] "Air pollution levels in the main Chinese cities at the beginning of the 1980s were almost exactly at the level of London at the height of the Industrial Revolution in 1890 "[4] |
Full timeline
| Year | Month and date | Event type | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | After the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the Chinese Government begins to develop environmental institutions.[2] | ||
| 1978 | The Third Chinese Constitution is issued with inclusion of an environmental commission.[5] | ||
| 1979 | The Chinese Government issues an Environmental Protection Law on a trial basis.[5] | ||
| 1981 - 2000 | Research shows that air pollution was 55% higher in the northern region of China during the period.[1] | ||
| 1982 | The Chinese legislature enacts the Marine Environmental Protection Law.[3] | ||
| 1984 | The Chinese legislature enacts the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law.[3] | ||
| 1984 | The Chinese legislature establishes the Forest Law as measure of nature conservation.[3] | ||
| 1985 | The Chinese legislature establishes the Grasslands Law as measure of nature conservation.[3] | ||
| 1987 | The Chinese legislature enacts the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law.[3] | ||
| 1989 | The Chinese Government formally issues an Environmental Protection Law.[5] | ||
| 1990 - 2015 | According to Global Burden of Disease Study, estimated China’s annual premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 and O3 average values of around 1 to 1.2 million deaths in the period.[5] | ||
| 1996 | The Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law is amended.[3] | ||
| 2000 | The Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law is amended.[3] | ||
| 2002 | A new Environmental Impact Assessment Law in amended.[3] | ||
| 2003 | The Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning determines that air pollution is responsible for 411,000 premature deaths across China.[1] | ||
| 2006 - 2010 | China starts to seriously control air pollution by limiting emissions for each province.[4] | ||
| 2007 | China ranks the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, overtaking the United States, and being responsible for 27 percent of global emissions in the year.[2] | ||
| 2007 | The year is known as China’s “first year of climate change communication research.”[6] | ||
| 2008 | Study suggests that reductions in air pollution only happens after the Chinese government creates the Ministry of Environmental Protection. After its creation, among the many changes in environmental policy, the MEP starts to gather reliable SO2 emissions data from continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) at the prefecture level and increases the number of enforcement officials by 17 percent. Further study suggests that reductions in air pollution in China only happens after the creation of the MEP.[4] | ||
| 2010 | The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection estimates the cost of pollution at around 1.5 trillion RMB (US$227 billion), or roughly 3.5 percent of the GDP.[2] | ||
| 2010 | Chinese census data calculates that nearly half of households primarily use solid fuels for cooking, and four out of five of these households are in rural areas.[7] | ||
| 2010 | The ambient air pollution in China is estimated by the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to lead to 1.2 million premature deaths from one year’s (2010) exposure in the country.[5] | ||
| 2012 - 2014 | The National Energy Agency claims that coal use dropped to 64.2 percent of the mix in 2014, down almost two percent from 2012.[2] | ||
| 2013 | January - February | Severe haze covers many provinces and cities in China. The haze with its unprecedentedly high index of PM2.5 concentration and extremely low visibility provoques worldwide concern and eventually becomes known as the “PM2.5 crisis”.[5] | |
| 2013 | The Chinese Government claims declaring war on pollution. Among the efforts to curb smog, these include closing down or moving heavily polluting factories and restrictions on the use of cars.[8] | ||
| 2013 | Chinese politician Chen Jiping, the former leading member of the party’s Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, states that environmental issues are a major reason for “mass incidents” in the country, estimating unofficial gatherings of one hundred or more that range from peaceful protest to rioting.[2] | ||
| 2013 | Thousands of dead pigs in the Huangpu river are found. the news is spread rapidly online.[2] | ||
| 2013 < | "The market for devices that help keep indoor air clean by filtrating outdoor air before it enters the dwelling has sky rocketed since 2013 along with increasing use of face masks – now even available in fashionable patterns – meant to protect people from breathing polluted air"[7] | ||
| 2013 | December | The China’s National Development and Reform Commission issues its first nationwide blueprint for climate change, outlining an extensive list of objectives for 2020.[2] | |
| 2014 | January | "Since January 2014, the central government has required fifteen thousand factories, including large state-owned enterprises, to publicly report real-time figures on air emissions and water discharges. "[2] | |
| 2014 | "China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, having overtaken the United States in 2007, and was responsible for 27 percent of global emissions in 2014."[2] | ||
| 2014 | March | ": Chinese Premier Li Keqiang declared a “war on pollution” in March 2014; "[2] | |
| 2014 | May | "in May of the same year the government strengthened the country’s Environmental Protection Law for the first time in twenty-five years. "[2] | |
| 2014 | "There were a record 17 million new cars on the road in 2014, further contributing to China’s high emissions. "[2] | ||
| 2014 | November | " In a November 2014 joint statement on climate change with the United States, China committed to hit its peak carbon emissions by 2030 and to have renewables account for 20 percent of its energy mix by 2030. "[2] | |
| 2014 | Water pollution | " In 2014, groundwater supplies in more than 60 percent of major cities were categorized as “bad to very bad,” and more than a quarter of China’s key rivers are “unfit for human contact.” "[2] | |
| 2014 | "China is one of the biggest investors in renewables, investing nearly $90 billion in 2014 as part of its pledge to cut its carbon intensity (far outspending the United States’ $51.8 billion)."[2] | ||
| 2014 | Approximately 4 billion tons of coal are consumed in the country in the year, more than the rest of the world combined.[9] | ||
| 2015 | " In 2015, China’s coal power plant capacity increased by 55 percent in the first six months, 155 new coal-fired plants were approved, and China admitted that it had underreported its annual coal consumption since 2000."[2] | ||
| 2015 | March | " In March 2015, Under the Dome, a TED Talk-style documentary on China’s air pollution, went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of views before internet censors blocked access"[2] | |
| 2015 | Estimates calculate about 1.5 million premature deaths in China attributable to PM2.5 exposure in the year, of which about 60 per cent were due to ambient PM2.5 pollution and about 40 per cent to household air pollution.[7] | ||
| 2015 | "The rate of deaths attributable to air pollution in total in 2015 (i.e. including ambient PM2.5, ozone and HAP) is estimated at about 115 deaths per 100,000 people. For comparison, the estimated figure for India was 138 deaths per 100,000 people, 49 in Japan, 43 in Western Europe and 31 in the US"[7] | ||
| 2015 | Water pollution | A reported 3.78 billion cubic meters of untreated wastewater was discharged across China in the year. This is water that has been ruled unusable for agricultural, industrial and even decorative purposes dumped into rivers and lakes.[10] | |
| 2016 | The Regional Ozone Sino-US Collaborative Research Center is established at Duke Kunshan University. It is the first research institute for ozone pollution control in the country.[11] | ||
| 2016 | September | The Innovative Financing for Air Pollution Control in Jing-Jin-Ji Region Program is launched, with the goal to finance projects helping to reduce coal consumption.[9] | |
| 2017 | ". More recently, President Xi Jinping, on a state visit to Washington, announced that China would initiate a national cap-and-trade emissions program in 2017."[2][12] | ||
| 2017 | "The China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection calculates an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 43 µg/m3 for China’s cities in 2017, more than 4 times the level of 10 µg/m3 recommended by the WHO."[4] | ||
| 2017 | October | Policy | China halts more than 150 coal-fired power plants after launching first regional Environmental Protection Bureau to consolidate cuts in air pollution following party conference. The measures are a part of an aggressive action plan that aims to cut wintertime particulate pollution by 15% year-on-year over the next five months.[13][14] |
| 2018 | July | Government initiates three-year plan to curb air pollution, released, making certain provisions for ozone control, such as compelling manufacturers to repair and replace VOC-emitting installations and applying legal upper limits on VOC concentration in paints, inks, and adhesives.[11] | |
| 2018 | September | Light pollution | Chinese scientists from the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth conduct nighttime light pollution research using a domestically-produced remote sensing satellite.[15] |
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See also
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Business created China's pollution problem - now it needs to fix it". fortune.com. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 "China's Environmental Crisis". cfr.org. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 van Rooij, Benjamin. Regulating Land and Pollution in China: Lawmaking, Compliance, and Enforcement : Theory and Cases.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Stoerk, Thomas. "blogs.edf.org". How China is cleaning up its air pollution faster than the post-Industrial UK. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Jin, Yana; Andersson, Henrik; Zhang, Shiqiu. "Air Pollution Control Policies in China: A Retrospective and Prospects". PMC 5201360
. PMID 27941665. doi:10.3390/ijerph13121219.
- ↑ Li, Ji; Dan, Luo. "Climate Change Communication in China". doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.467.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Introduction: Air Pollution in China". cambridge.org. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ "Beijing meets national air pollutant standard for first time". scmp.com. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Helping China Fight Air Pollution". worldbank.org. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ↑ "In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe". theguardian.com. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "As China Cuts Air Pollution, An Unseen Killer Emerges". sixthtone.com. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ↑ "China to Announce Cap-and-Trade Program to Limit Emissions". nytimes.com. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ↑ "'Beautiful China': Beijing starts the biggest shutdown of steel factories in history". unearthed.greenpeace.org. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ↑ "China halts more than 150 coal-fired power plants". unearthed.greenpeace.org. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ↑ "Chinese scientists use domestic satellite to conduct light pollution research". xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
