The efforts of China to combat air pollution during the period of 2015–2018: A case study assessing the environmental, health and economic benefits in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding “2 + 26” regions

During the period of 2015–2018, Chinese government had made great efforts to mitigate air pollutants, such as air quality monitoring, energy structure adjustment, and pollutant emission reduction from industry, transportation and household sectors. With the special investment of 152 billion Chinese Yuan (CNY) in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and surrounding “2 + 26” regions, the annual local concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 decreased from 77, 132, 38 and 46 μg/m3 to 60, 109, 20 and 43 μg/m3. It was estimated that the improvement in air quality avoided 27,021 (95 % CIs 12,548–39,738) premature deaths attributed to air pollution exposure based on an exposure-response function, including 45 %, 17 % and 15 % of cardiopulmonary, lung cancer and respiratory morality cases. Air pollution reduction was also effective in reducing work time loss, which reduced the total working time loss by 3.8 × 107 (95 % CIs 1.8 × 107–5.6 × 107) h, and the per capita working time loss by 0.28 (95 % CIs 0.13–0.41) h/capita by 2018. From the economic aspect, air pollution control actions in those regions saved 95.6 (95 % CIs 44.2–141) billion CNY economic loss by using the value of statistical life (VSL). The total benefit-cost ratio was 63.7 % (95 % CIs 29.4 %–93.7 %). The cost-effectiveness in Beijing and Tianjin were relatively low due to the regional contribution from other cities of the air pollution transmission channel. Despite the uncertainties, the results clearly show the significance of the environmental, health and economic benefits of actions in the BTH and surrounding “2 + 26” regions for combating air pollution.