The China-UK scoping workshop on air quality and health effects of carbon neutrality (CN) or net zero (NZ) policies offered a unique opportunity to shape future research directions in this field. The workshop was held online on 27 April 2022 from 08:00 – 12:40 UK time (15:00 – 19:40 China time). This workshop provided an interactive platform for knowledge exchange between the UK and Chinese scientists studying the impacts of CN/NZ policies on air quality and human health. The central theme of the scoping workshop is how to optimize the CN/NZ policies to maximize the benefit on air quality and health equality. Through the workshop, we developed an agenda for future research and innovation to optimize CN/NZ policy strategies for air quality and health, which was recommended to UK and China funding bodies for consideration of future funding opportunities.
Background
China and the UK aim to achieve net zero GHG emissions in the next 30-40 years to address climate change, but air pollutant emission targets have not been defined. CN/NZ policies represent a great opportunity to address climate change and air quality together. To achieve net zero GHG targets and maximize the co-benefits for air quality and health, the design of these policies requires the support of scientific evidence which includes identifying solutions to reduce GHG emissions and air pollutant levels, improving current understanding of how climate change affects air quality, highlighting carbon policies that could have adverse impacts on air quality, and identifying measure for air pollutants which cannot be addressed by CN/NZ strategies.
Organization
This workshop is organized by the UK-China Collaboration to Optimize net zero Policy options for Air Quality and Health (COP-AQ) project team. COP-AQ is funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). A key deliverable of the COP-AQ project is to identify research priorities to optimize CN/NZ options to maximize co-benefits for air quality and health building upon the complementarities between China and the UK.
Links
Workshop programme (download in pdf)
Workshop recordings (view on YouTube)
Speakers
Prof. David Fowler
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Effects of net zero policies and climate change on air quality – a UK perspective
Video: https://youtu.be/qVt2gmqUQX8
Prof. Kebin He
Tsinghua University
China’s Carbon Neutrality Strategies and future air pollutant emissions
Video: https://youtu.be/MzxNp4zt1nU
Prof. Hong Liao
Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology
Coordinated actions to tackle climate change and air pollution in China
Video: https://youtu.be/XenYyUkW6f4
Prof. David Reay
University of Edinburgh
Climate change, net zero policies and carbon offsetting
Video: https://youtu.be/278usufb4tA
Prof. Tong Zhu
Peking University
Maximizing co-benefits to health and economy in climate and clean air actions
Video: https://youtu.be/SaJDl1fbnvM
Presentations by COP-AQ working groups
Presentations recordings (view on YouTube)
Contact
For any queries, please contact Clarissa Baldo (c.baldo@bham.ac.uk) project administrator of COP‑AQ.