Guangdong Province is one of the largest economic regions in China and is one of the world’s main manufacturing centers. It is an urban cluster of cities with high population densities and with Guangzhou as the provincial capital. As such, pollution from one city contributes to pollution deposition in other cities, especially those in the Pearl River Delta, which also includes Hong Kong, as they share the same air shed. With the rapid growth of economic and energy consumption in recent years, the region is still facing significant challenges in addressing air pollutant emissions even with increased efforts of individual cities in AQM.

Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong Province established the PRD Regional Air Quality Management Plan in 2003, Plan). The plan sets out major tasks including control measures, monitoring system, emissions inventory, technical exchange, capacity building, and information sharing. The Air Quality Monitoring Network came into operation in 2005. From 2006 to 2010, the annual averages recorded by the regional monitoring network for SO2 , NO2, and PM10 decreased by 47%, 7% and 14%, respectively.

In May 2011, China’s State Council issued a regional air quality management (RAQM) directive, and identified PRD as one of the three priority regions, together with Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin and the Yangtze River Delta region. Links among existing programs and policies , however, are found to be weak, hence a comprehensive and systematic approach is needed to supplement those top-down measures. Guangdong Province Environmental Protection Bureau (GD EPB) indicates that it needs help in specific control measures, analysis of their cost-effectiveness, as well as collaboration mechanisms across the region.

The objective of this project is to strengthen air quality management (AQM) at the city and provincial level in South China.

Donor: Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Duration: Dec 2011 – Mar 2013

CAI-Asia contacts:
Sophie Punte, sophie.punte(at)cai-asia.org
Yan Peng, yan.peng(at)cai-asia.org