How China’s Pollution Controls Accelerated Global Warming

According to a new research published by Norway’s CICERO climate institute, reducing sulphur pollution from China’s coal plants, industry and vehicle exhaust over the past 15 to 20 years has accelerated the pace of global warning since 2010, reported The Energy Mix.

The researchers believe that reducing sulphur pollution from China has increased the global temperatures by about 0.07 degrees Celsius.

According to New Scientis, China had extremely poor air quality in the early 2000s as a result of rapid industrialisation. This led to a public outcry in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olypmics.

In response, China initiated a crackdown on sulphur dioxide emissions by fitting scrubbers to coal power plants to curb the hazardous emissions.

Moreover, rules governing vehicle exhaust were also tightened to control the situation, eventually reducing sulphur emissions by 75%. While it marked a significant progress from the perspective of public health, it also strained the climate by accelerating the rate of global warming.

Impact of SO2 on Climate

Sulphur dioxide in the air converts into sulphate aerosols in the atmosphere which help cool the planet, revealed a study from the University of Cambridge.

The Aerosols radiate sunlight back in to space and protect the Earth from solar radiation. They also help in the formation of clouds, increasing the occurrence of whiter, longer-lived clouds that further contribute to reflect sunlight. Removing these aerosols from the atmosphere therefore eliminates the cooling effect, reported New Scientist.

“The warming was always there, we just had some artificial cooling from pollution, and in removing the pollution we are now seeing the full effect of the greenhouse gas-driven warming,” lead author Bjørn Samset told the New Scientist.

While earlier studies have recognised this effect, the new study is the first to model and quantify the specific atmospheric impact of China’s efforts to cut pollution.