University of Birmingham
Summary
China’s stricter clean heating policies have improved air quality in northern China, particularly in Beijing and surrounding cities– potentially resulting in over 23,000 fewer premature deaths in 2021 than in 2015, a new study reveals.
From 2015 to 2021, the impact of winter heating on China’s capital and 27 other cities saw concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from heating activities reduce by 41.3% - compared with a drop of 12.9% in other northern Chinese cities which use lower levels of clean fuels than the ‘2+26’ cities.
China’s centralised winter heating strategy is one of the world’s largest energy-consumption systems - providing free or heavily subsidised heating to urban residents. The system is usually switched on from mid-November to March.
In 2013, China introduced the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, which accelerated the use of centralised and district heating - encouraging the switch to cleaner fuels.
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