IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i4p402-d67470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Haze Nightmare Following the Economic Boom in China: Dilemma and Tradeoffs

Author

Listed:
  • Jian Sun

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    The author contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jinniu Wang

    (Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
    Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
    Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610041, China
    International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), G.P.O. Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal)

  • Yanqiang Wei

    (Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Yurui Li

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Miao Liu

    (State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China)

Abstract

This study aims to expand on a deeper understanding of the relationship between rapid economic development and ensuing air pollution in China. The database includes the gross domestic product (GDP), the value added of a secondary industry, the per capita GDP (PGDP), greenhouse gases emissions, and PM 2.5 concentrations. The results indicate that China’s PGDP has continued to rise over the past decade, and the rate of PGDP slowed down from 1980 to 2004 (slope = 5672.81, R 2 = 0.99, p < 0.001) but was significantly lower than that from the year 2004 to 2013 (slope = 46,911.08, R 2 > 0.99, p < 0.001). Unfortunately, we found that total coal consumption, annual steel production, and SO 2 emission had been continually growing as the overall economy expands at temporal scale, with the coefficient of determinations greater than 0.98 ( p < 0.001). Considering the spatial pattern aspect, we also found a significant relationship between GDP and greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, severe air pollution has negatively impacted the environment and human health, particularly in some highlighted regions. The variation explained by both total SO 2 emission and total smoke and dust emission were 33% ( p < 0.001) and 24% ( p < 0.01) for the rate of total pertussis at temporal scale, respectively. Furthermore, at the spatial scale, pulmonary tuberculosis rates and pertussis mainly occurred in area with serious air pollution (economically developed region). It can be summarized that the extensive mode of economic growth has brought a number of serious environment and human health problems. Thus, a new policy framework has been proposed to meet the goals of maintaining a healthy economy without harming natural environment, which may prove integral, especially when coupled with long-term national strategic development plans.

Suggested Citation

  • Jian Sun & Jinniu Wang & Yanqiang Wei & Yurui Li & Miao Liu, 2016. "The Haze Nightmare Following the Economic Boom in China: Dilemma and Tradeoffs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:402-:d:67470
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/402/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/402/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Raymond & Leung, Guy C.K., 2012. "Coal consumption and economic growth in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 438-443.
    2. Chai, Jian & Guo, Ju-E & Wang, Shou-Yang & Lai, Kin Keung, 2009. "Why does energy intensity fluctuate in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5717-5731, December.
    3. Aiping Zhang & Linsheng Zhong & Yong Xu & Hui Wang & Lijuan Dang, 2015. "Tourists’ Perception of Haze Pollution and the Potential Impacts on Travel: Reshaping the Features of Tourism Seasonality in Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Zhu Liu & Dabo Guan & Wei Wei & Steven J. Davis & Philippe Ciais & Jin Bai & Shushi Peng & Qiang Zhang & Klaus Hubacek & Gregg Marland & Robert J. Andres & Douglas Crawford-Brown & Jintai Lin & Hongya, 2015. "Reduced carbon emission estimates from fossil fuel combustion and cement production in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 524(7565), pages 335-338, August.
    5. Ke Wang & Yingnan Liu, 2014. "Can Beijing fight with haze? Lessons can be learned from London and Los Angeles," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 72(2), pages 1265-1274, June.
    6. Lin, Boqiang & Liu, Xia, 2012. "Dilemma between economic development and energy conservation: Energy rebound effect in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 867-873.
    7. Lingying Pan & Zheng Guo & Pei Liu & Linwei Ma & Zheng Li, 2013. "Comparison and Analysis of Macro Energy Scenarios in China and a Decomposition-Based Approach to Quantifying the Impacts of Economic and Social Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(7), pages 1-22, July.
    8. Feng, Taiwen & Sun, Linyan & Zhang, Ying, 2009. "The relationship between energy consumption structure, economic structure and energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5475-5483, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiao Gong & Jianing Mi & Ruitao Yang & Rui Sun, 2018. "Chinese National Air Protection Policy Development: A Policy Network Theory Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Xiao Gong & Jianing Mi & Chunyan Wei & Ruitao Yang, 2019. "Measuring Environmental and Economic Performance of Air Pollution Control for Province-Level Areas in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maliyamu Abudureheman & Qingzhe Jiang & Xiucheng Dong & Cong Dong, 2022. "CO 2 Emissions in China: Does the Energy Rebound Matter?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Jin Zhang and David C. Broadstock, 2016. "The Causality between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth for China in a Time-varying Framework," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(China Spe).
    3. Chen, Xiude & Qin, Quande & Wei, Y.-M., 2016. "Energy productivity and Chinese local officials’ promotions: Evidence from provincial governors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 103-112.
    4. Burke, Paul J. & Liao, Hua, 2015. "Is the price elasticity of demand for coal in China increasing?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 309-322.
    5. Zou, Gao Lu, 2012. "The long-term relationships among China's energy consumption sources and adjustments to its renewable energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 456-467.
    6. Zhang, Dayong & Cao, Hong & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2016. "Identifying the determinants of energy intensity in China: A Bayesian averaging approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 672-682.
    7. Mingxiang Deng & Wei Li & Yan Hu, 2016. "Decomposing Industrial Energy-Related CO 2 Emissions in Yunnan Province, China: Switching to Low-Carbon Economic Growth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    8. Yulan Lv & Wei Chen & Jianquan Cheng, 2019. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Urbanization on Energy Intensity in Chinese Cities: A Regional Heterogeneity Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, June.
    9. Zhong, Sheng, 2018. "Structural decompositions of energy consumption between 1995 and 2009: Evidence from WIOD," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 655-667.
    10. Bingjie Xu & Ruoyu Zhong & Yifeng Liu, 2019. "Comparison of CO 2 emissions reduction efficiency of household fuel consumption in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Guang, Fengtao & He, Yongxiu & Wen, Le & Sharp, Basil, 2019. "Energy intensity and its differences across China’s regions: Combining econometric and decomposition analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 989-1000.
    12. Liang, Sai & Zhang, Tianzhu, 2011. "Interactions of energy technology development and new energy exploitation with water technology development in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 6960-6966.
    13. Dayong Zhang and David C. Broadstock, 2016. "Club Convergence in the Energy Intensity of China," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    14. Ju, Keyi & Su, Bin & Zhou, Dequn & Wu, Junmin, 2017. "Does energy-price regulation benefit China's economy and environment? Evidence from energy-price distortions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 108-119.
    15. Fan, Ruguo & Luo, Ming & Zhang, Pengfei, 2016. "A study on evolution of energy intensity in China with heterogeneity and rebound effect," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 159-169.
    16. Zhongwei, Huang & Liu, Yishu, 2022. "The role of eco-innovations, trade openness, and human capital in sustainable renewable energy consumption: Evidence using CS-ARDL approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P1), pages 131-140.
    17. Shirzad, Mohammad & Kazemi Shariat Panahi, Hamed & Dashti, Behrouz B. & Rajaeifar, Mohammad Ali & Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Tabatabaei, Meisam, 2019. "A comprehensive review on electricity generation and GHG emission reduction potentials through anaerobic digestion of agricultural and livestock/slaughterhouse wastes in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 571-594.
    18. Man, Yi & Yan, Yukun & Wang, Xu & Ren, Jingzheng & Xiong, Qingang & He, Zhenglei, 2023. "Overestimated carbon emission of the pulp and paper industry in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    19. Zhang, Haoran & Li, Ruixiong & Cai, Xingrui & Zheng, Chaoyue & Liu, Laibao & Liu, Maodian & Zhang, Qianru & Lin, Huiming & Chen, Long & Wang, Xuejun, 2022. "Do electricity flows hamper regional economic–environmental equity?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    20. Chen, Yuhong & Lyu, Yanfeng & Yang, Xiangdong & Zhang, Xiaohong & Pan, Hengyu & Wu, Jun & Lei, Yongjia & Zhang, Yanzong & Wang, Guiyin & Xu, Min & Luo, Hongbin, 2022. "Performance comparison of urea production using one set of integrated indicators considering energy use, economic cost and emissions’ impacts: A case from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:402-:d:67470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.