While praising China’s success in reducing pollution, a University of Chicago (UChicago) professor said Wednesday that further pollution reductions are necessary in China.
Michael Greenstone, director of Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, told Xinhua in an interview that the measures taken by the Chinese government over the past four years have been extraordinarily successful in reducing air pollution. “I’m unaware of any country achieving such large reductions in pollution in such a short period of time.”
At the same time, “substantial further reductions are necessary to bring many parts of China into compliance with the country’s own particulates standards or, more ambitiously, with World Health Organization standards,” Greenstone said.
Greenstone holds that the challenges China faces in the next step is to find the right balance between economic growth and environmental protection. China “has taken a top-down approach to this challenge by generally directing emissions reductions in specific industries and regions, which is a costly approach.”
“The best way to obtain further gains, while continuing to facilitate robust economic growth, is to rely more heavily on market-based approaches, like pollution taxes or cap-and-trade markets,” Greenstone said.
Continue reading at Xinhua…