Restoring Blue Skies: Key Insights from 2014 Air Quality Workshop

This briefing outlines key insights and guiding principles for improving air quality in China, developed during a September 2014 workshop in Beijing. It proposes a framework based on ten guiding principles, fiscal policy alignment, robust management systems, full enforcement of laws, and targeted sectoral policies to reduce both air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

• Experts identified ten guiding principles for a successful air quality program, which include establishing unambiguous local air quality management structures, ensuring sufficient human and financial resources, and applying state-of-the-art scientific analysis. Other principles include creating emergency episode forecasting systems, prioritizing cost-effective measures, requiring Best Available Control Technologies (BACT), optimizing co-benefits for air pollutants and greenhouse gases, ensuring enforcement through incentives and penalties, enhancing transparency, and conducting regular monitoring and evaluation every three to five years.
• To align fiscal policy with air pollution goals, the document recommends removing fossil fuel subsidies, increasing coal resource tax rates, and significantly raising emissions fees. It notes that Beijing and Tianjin recently increased emissions fees by 11 times and 7 times respectively, suggesting that overall emissions fees could be increased by at least 5 times. Additionally, electricity prices should be adjusted to reflect actual production and pollution control costs.
• A robust air quality management system requires a periodic standard revision process based on health assessments, a mandatory attainment system with solid emissions inventory data, and deadlines for attaining standards. The document highlights a staffing gap, noting that while the U.S. EPA has 1,400 staff focused on air quality, China's MEP has only 400 for all environmental programs despite having a population three times larger than the U.S.
• Full enforcement of clean air laws should involve fines high enough to recover economic benefits from polluting activities, a high probability of detection through random checks and self-reporting, and potential rewards for reporting violations.
• Targeted sectoral policies for quick results include implementing a coal cap to reduce coal to less than 50% of China's energy structure by 2030 and aiming for renewable energy to supply 80% of electricity by 2050. In transportation, the document suggests dense bike/walking networks, an auction system for private car license plates in mega-cities (which could increase Beijing's revenue by 36.7 billion RMB), and skipping Euro 5 fuel standards to jump directly to Euro 6 by 2018 for HD trucks and off-road vehicles. For buildings, strict codes could enable a 75% energy reduction in new construction.

APA

Energy Innovation (2015). Restoring Blue Skies: Key Insights from 2014 Air Quality Workshop. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Air-Quality-Workshop-Key-Insight-Document-2015-April-Final-EN.pdf

Chicago

Energy Innovation. Restoring Blue Skies: Key Insights from 2014 Air Quality Workshop. 2015. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Air-Quality-Workshop-Key-Insight-Document-2015-April-Final-EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Energy Innovation |title=Restoring Blue Skies: Key Insights from 2014 Air Quality Workshop |date=April 2015 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Air-Quality-Workshop-Key-Insight-Document-2015-April-Final-EN.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{energyinnovation2015restoring, author = {{Energy Innovation}}, title = {{Restoring Blue Skies: Key Insights from 2014 Air Quality Workshop}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2015}, month = apr, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Air-Quality-Workshop-Key-Insight-Document-2015-April-Final-EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }