Sun G, (2001) Effectiveness, Efficiency and Governance: An Integrated Study of China’s Air Pollution Management, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.  Contact gsun@andrew.cmu.edu for copy.  Powerpoint summary available in PDF form here.

“Understanding Air Pollution Management in China,” G. Sun, H. Keith Florig, and H. Dowlatabadi, poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Global Environmental Management Initiative, Baltimore, MD, March 27-28, 2000.

Since the early 1970s, China has launched a raft of nationwide programs to reduce airborne particulate matter (PM) in urban areas.  This dissertation analyzes a select group of these programs in five diverse cities: Hohhot, Benxi, Taiyuan, Binzhou and Nantong.  In each city, interviews were conducted with air pollution experts in the local Environmental Protection and other bureaus to ascertain the history of local PM control programs, their effectiveness and costs, and the relationships among various stakeholders in government and (state) industry.  In addition, data were collected on ambient PM concentrations, reported PM emissions from various sources, and local fuel resources. 

Three PM-control programs were selected for detailed analysis: (i) retrofitting coal boilers with particulate control devices, (ii) replacing raw coal with coal briquettes for cooking, and (iii) replacing coal with coal gas for cooking.  The costs and health benefits of each program were estimated using an integrated model developed by the author of PM exposure, PM health impacts, and implementation cost. 

Conclusions include the following.  First, the reward structure within China’s top-down bureaucratic system motivates local officials to devote most of their effort and resources to fulfilling targets set by upper-levels of government.  Thus, PM control programs in China are strongly driven by top-down commands by the central or provincial government.  Second, PM-control was initiated in China at lower per capita GDP levels of ~80 U.S. dollars, which is low compared to environmental action thresholds observed in other countries. This phenomenon is possibly related to the considerable authority wielded by the Central government during the 1970s & 1980s.  Third, the cost-effectiveness for live saving of China’s earliest PM-control programs were on the order of a few to a few hundred dollars per life-year saved. Finally, modeling of exposures from various particulate matter sources shows that residential heating, cooking and environmental tobacco smoking are the most important sources of both individual and population exposure to particulate matter, producing exposures that are at least one order of magnitude higher than those from on-road vehicles and power stations. This suggests that exposure-based environmental regulation has significant potential to improve the efficiency of particulate matter management.

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