China’s ‘dirty’ lockdown recovery sends pollution levels soaring

LEVELS of pollution have risen to above normal levels in China since the country’s lockdown was eased, in an early indication that Beijing may opt for a “dirty” recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, among other pollutants, were higher in the month to May 8 than in the same period in 2019, according to analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Levels of pollution were generally highest in areas that have a lot of coalburning industry. Air pollution in the country dropped dramatically during February’s lockdown as industry and transport were stopped.

The country’s carbon emissions were estimated to have dropped 25 per cent during the most stringent lockdown period.

“The rapid rebound in air pollution and coal consumption levels across China is an early warning of what a smokestack industry-led rebound could look like: highly polluting industries have been faster to recover from the crisis than the rest of the economy,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, the lead analyst at CREA.

The latest data will raise concerns that China is taking a path of quick and dirty economic growth, as was seen in the wake of the 2008 recession. “As the world’s largest CO2 emitter and as the first major economy to reopen after the crisis, all eyes are on China.

It is essential for policymakers to prioritise clean energy and reduce the country’s economic reliance on highly polluting, energy intensive industries,” said Mr Myllyvirta.

Chinese citizens will share the heightened concerns of many around the world for health to be prioritised in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.

Studies that have drawn links between levels of pollution and worse rates of infection or outcome have so far proved inconclusive.

But air pollution exacerbates respiratory conditions such as asthma that are a risk factor in patients suffering from Covid-19.