Study: Reduction in air pollution in China accelerates global warming
For around 15 years, China has achieved immense success in the fight against air pollution. These have probably had consequences for the speed of global warming
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China's success in the fight against severe air pollution is apparently responsible for a large part of the recent acceleration in global warming. This is the conclusion of an international research team, although the study has not yet been verified. The team used simulations to investigate what impact the 75 percent reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions in China could have had on the climate. "When we started looking at the numbers, it turned out that the effect was definitely macroscopic – it's not small," quotes New Scientist study leader Bjørn Samset from the climate research center CICERO in Norway. According to him, China's successes are responsible for 80 percent of the acceleration.
The true extent is only becoming visible
As the team explains in the research article, global warming has accelerated since around 2010. This coincides with the successes of the People's Republic of China in the fight against air pollution. However, it has not yet been possible to establish a direct link, even though earlier studies have already pointed to the global consequences. The reason for the changes are emissions such as sulphur dioxide, whose particles reflect the sun's rays and thus hide the true extent of global warming. If they are absent, the warming appears correspondingly faster, but in reality only the consequences of mankind's activities become visible.
Samset has now also explained to the science magazine that the enormous consequences of what is happening in China can only partly be explained by the extent of air pollution there. The rest is due to geography: aerosols emitted in China are inevitably dispersed by atmospheric currents over the Pacific, where they reflect sunlight particularly effectively: "The same amount of emissions from India would not have this effect on global warming." He also explicitly points out that China has not caused any additional global warming. However, the reduction in air pollution has had immense positive consequences for the health of local people.
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Global temperature rise should slow down again
The fact that successes in the fight against environmental pollution can have seemingly negative consequences for the fight against climate change is nothing new. Recently, for example, the permitted proportion of sulphur in shipping fuels had to be reduced. This reduces the proportion of sulphur dioxide in emissions, which could also drive global warming. Around a year ago, an international research team also stated that the significant reduction in air pollution in China could be responsible for a faster rise in temperatures in the North Pacific. The new study now expands on this. However, it also suggests that the rise in temperatures could now slow down again – because the air in China is almost clean.
(mho)
