LAHORE: China is one of the countries which have set the precedent for the rest of the world on how to control air pollution.

Professor Dr Jian Gao, deputy director of the Institute of Atmospheric Research, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, shared his knowledge, showing how the Chinese achieved this feat. He was speaking at the session in the conference, Tackling Trans-Boundary Air Pollution in South Asia: Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation, a part of the DawnMedia conference the Air We Breathe, at the Expo Centre here on Saturday.

Mr Gao said one of the most important parts of the strategy was ‘one city, one policy’ as there was a huge imbalance between the cities. “Only the capital city of Beijing has unique resources where the local government has money but not all the cities have the same capacity; that’s why we launched the ‘one city, one policy’. We had to help the mayors to make a draft of their own roadways.”

He said that with the help of regional climate control actions, including one city, one policy, the difference in the last 10 years was evident. “The PM2.5 reduced by 64pc but without effect on the GDP. Beijing had PM2.5 at 89 in 2013 and now it is lower than 30.”

Regional cooperation stressed for solutions to environmental issues in DawnMedia conference

Mr Gao said China focused on key regions, including Beijing province, and the smog seasons, i.e. winter and autumn. There used to be 14m families using coal for heating for five months. From 2013 to 2016, China collected samples from more than 50 cities that had biggest contributors of pollution as coal burning, industry and traffic.

“Fifty percent pollution was being caused by coal burning and central government and local government made tough decisions to help the 40m families to replace coal with electricity and natural. This made all the difference related to pollution. According to Mr Gao, there were 3.5m factories for manufacturing in China which needed to be kept alive. China made categories of industry into A, B, C, D and on the top were the ones that needed to be saved and bottom, which could be disposed of. There were steps taken for transport sector too, including spread of EVs.“

For the dust from construction activities, according to Mr Gao, China used satellite to identify every construction site to monitor the dust and installed sensors to make the dust map of the city. He pointed out that there was coordination between various departments, including agriculture, steel refinery and traffic, environment protection, and about 2,000 scientists. The central government was also helped to establish the pollution response system.

Saying that South Asia was the most polluted region regarding PM2.5, Mr Gao stressed regional cooperation for the solution. After the Pakistani PM’s visit, there is a joint team to conduct a study and help Punjab to help a system to control pollution. He hoped that in the next few years, Pakistan and China could work together for improvement of the air quality in Punjab and Lahore.

Harshana Rajakaruna, member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, also suggested regions of South Asia should work together to deal with the issue of pollution with a multi-pronged approach. He said there should be a regional data sharing network. “As one country’s pollution affects the other, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms are needed with international partnership. We should collectively engage multilateral development banks, private funds and UN agencies to target finance and technology transfer for clean air and marine life protection.”

Mr Rajakaruna termed environmental diplomacy a must for regional stability and shared profitability. He suggested using SAARC and other bilateral channels and global forums to build a forum to work for cleaner air and marine life. He lauded Pakistan for taking steps to bring the clean air on national agenda and organising a forum like the DawnMedia conference for fostering regional dialogue.

He proposed making a regional taskforce of officials, scientists and civil society representatives to draft an MoU within for cooperation among SARRC nations for joint capacity-building.

Aban Marker Kabraji of UNEP Asia-Pacific said Breathe Pakistan was an example for other media houses to launch their own campaigns and that there had been a consistency in the campaign. She said region was more than just political boundaries of nations. She said 99 percent of our population breathed polluted air and Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar were among the most polluted cities globally. Acknowledging that pollution was a trans-boundary issue, she said we could not just blame the others as there were local factors and local emissions. However, she added that regional dialogue and cooperation were needed for data sharing on pollution.

Nazifa Butt of WWF-Pakistan also stressed that air pollution issue was regional. Sharing the data of deaths caused by pollution in South Asia, she called it a health emergency. “We are now entering the smog season which is also known as the fifth season in Lahore specifically.” She said the whole South Asia was confronted with pollution issue and Dhaka, Delhi and Lahore were no different when it came to pollution. “We all are facing the same challenges and extreme weather conditions.” She said South Asia had 37 cities which were among the 40 most polluted cities of the world and fifty percent of our pollution comes from trans-boundary.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025