Air purification efforts in East Asia accelerated global warming - Media
Kyiv • UNN
New research has shown that air purification from pollution in East Asia, especially in China, has led to an acceleration of global warming. This is due to the reduction of the cooling effect of sulfate aerosols, which previously masked some of the warming from greenhouse gases.
According to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, cleaning up air pollution in East Asia has accelerated global warming. This is reported by UNN with reference to Phys.org.
Details
Global warming, caused mainly by greenhouse gas emissions, has been accelerating over the past 15 years, leading to record surface temperatures. During the same period, East Asian countries have made significant efforts to clean up air pollution, which is important for public health. The largest air pollution cleanup has been carried out in China, where atmospheric air pollution causes about 1 million deaths per year.
But air pollution also contributed to climate cooling. Sulfate aerosols, which are formed by burning fossil fuels, can shade the Earth's surface from sunlight. Thus, air pollution unintentionally restrains some of the warming caused by greenhouse gases.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that in 2021, aerosols cooled the Earth's surface by 0.4 ºC. However, this did not take into account the fact that since the early 2010s, China, which at that time was one of the main sources of air pollution, introduced strict policies to improve its quality.
Bjorn H. Samset, lead author and senior research fellow at the Center for International Climate Research CICERO, stated: "We were able to isolate the climate impacts of air quality policies in East Asia over the past 15 years. Our main result is that the aerosol cleanup in East Asia has likely largely driven the recent acceleration of global warming, as well as warming trends in the Pacific."
Analyzing the climate impacts of emissions from a single region is a complex task. It requires climate simulations that were not readily available, and updated emissions data that reflect the actual reduction in pollution in and around mainland China. Using a large set of simulations from eight different climate models, this study shows how a 75% reduction in sulfate emissions in East Asia partially exposes greenhouse gas-induced warming and changes how temperatures rise in different parts of the world.
Dr. Laura Wilcox, author and associate professor at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) at the University of Reading, said: "The climate impacts of air pollution are short-lived, whereas the impact of carbon dioxide emissions can be felt for centuries. This means that the acceleration of warming due to reduced air pollution is also likely to be short-lived. We will see an acceleration of warming while the exposure occurs, and then a return to greenhouse gas-driven warming rates when air pollution stabilizes."
Addition
Western Europe recorded its hottest June ever, with an average temperature of 20.49°C. This is 2.81°C above the 1991-2020 average, indicating increased heat stress in the region.