The Impact of China’s Acid Rain and Sulfur Dioxide Control Zones Policy on Industrial Sulfur Dioxide Emissions: A Panel Analysis

Wu, Yujia

doi:10.52372/kjps26204

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2011; 26(2):77-100

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52372/kjps26204

Article

The Impact of China’s Acid Rain and Sulfur Dioxide Control Zones Policy on Industrial Sulfur Dioxide Emissions: A Panel Analysis

Yujia Wu ¹

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Yujia Wu is a consultant for the Secretariat of the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) and the Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (SRO-ENEA, UNESCAP). She has a master’s degree in international economics and international environmental policy from the University of California, San Diego. E-mail: wu5@un.org.

Â© Copyright 2011 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jun 10, 2011; Revised: Jun 16, 2011; Revised: Aug 05, 2011; Accepted: Aug 08, 2011

Published Online: Aug 31, 2011

Abstract

In order to control sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions, the Chinese government in 1998 implemented the Acid Rain and Sulfur Dioxide Emission Control Zones policy (known as the Two Control Zone or TCZ policy). In a panel analysis of the impact of the TCZ policy on China’s industrial SO₂ emissions, two-way fixed-effects models show that it did not significantly reduce either per capita SO₂ emissions or SO₂ intensity in China. The study also reveals that instead of the traditional inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve, the relationship between income growth and sulfur pollution in China favors an N-shaped pattern. The empirical results indicate that the TCZ policy has not had a consistent, longterm impact on sulfur pollution control. This is in accord with previous studies and the actual situation in the two control zones. This paper presents two policy recommendations for improving the mitigation of SO₂ pollution in China.

Keywords: sulfur dioxide; acid rain; two control zones; China; air pollution