China Urban Pollution Information Disclosure Study (CUPIDS) : socioeconomic implications of dirty industry and a guide to national cleandustrialization

Abstract

It is now common knowledge that China's data is bad, and China's environment is polluted. In this paper I develop a simple pollution intensity index to test China's existing national and local environmental data, to answer the questions: "Bad" how? "Polluted" why? And finally: what can be done? I find that China's existing data is rudimentary, piecemeal, and inaccurate. I find that government data is not detailed, not transparent, and that non-governmental attempts at improving data quality and transparency are hamstringed by lack of official support. These data quality and transparency issues contribute to the intractability of China's industrial pollution. I also find that a pollution intensity index, like the one I develop and test in this study, can help policymakers identify pollution hotspots years before the hotspots worsen into public health emergencies. By running 2010 data through a simple algorithm, I isolate a pollution hotspot that took the Chinese government until 2013 to discover without this framework. I show that better and more accurate data, along with a mandate for continuous monitoring and analysis, can shift the current strategy from pollution control to pollution prevention, ultimately saving time, money, and lives.