An African Surprise: As Economies Grow, Air Quality Improves

[Frodo]

This is in direct contrast to countries like India, which is now experiencing air pollution even worse than that in China:

A Surprise in Africa: Air Pollution Falls as Economies Rise
Air quality is improving in one of the continent’s fastest-growing regions, researchers have found. If the trend can be sustained, it would be good news for human health and climate change.

Rapidly growing countries generally see sharp increases in air pollution as their populations and economies expand. But a new study of air quality in Africa published on Monday has found the opposite: One of the continent’s most vibrant regions is becoming less polluted.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that levels of dangerous nitrogen oxides, a byproduct of combustion, in the northern part of sub-Saharan Africa have declined sharply as wealth and population in the area have increased.

“The traditional paradigm is that as middle and low-income countries grow you often see more emissions, and to see a different kind of trajectory is very interesting,” said Jonathan Hickman, a researcher at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who was the lead author on the study. “It’s nice to see a decline occurring when you’d expect to see pollution increasing.”

The reason, according to researchers, is that an increase in pollution from industry and transportation in the area studied — from Senegal and Ivory Coast in the west to South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya in the east — appears to have been offset by a decline in the number of fires set by farmers.

[Kamala's side hoe]

A large chunk of North India's air pollution comes from farmers burning their fields.

[Frodo]

A large chunk of North India's air pollution comes from farmers burning their fields.

Yes, but that only happens once a year or so in October and November and is primarily generated by farmers in Punjab and Haryana.  The main causes are vehicular and industrial emissions, coal powerplants, waste burning, as well as poorer residents using whatever is at hand for cooking including wood and cow-dung.  It also doesn't help that the Himalayas helps keep all that poisonous air in place over the Indus-Ganga plain.

  

It is a situation which seems unlikely to change significantly over the course of the next few decades as coal is destined to continue to produce the majority of India's electricity, and if anything its use will increase as India's energy demand grows as it industrializes.  

Which makes sub-Saharan Africa especially interesting in how they managed to avoid all this...

[RI]

How is this a surprise?



NOx is a production pollutant which is well-known to follow the EKC (unlike some consumption pollutants).

[Kingpoleon]

How is this a surprise?



NOx is a production pollutant which is well-known to follow the EKC (unlike some consumption pollutants).

Two problems here.
1: The Curve cannot reverse serious damage to biodiversity or polar ice caps.
2: The Curve in terms of emissions reduction is just now close to being grasped by the US, perhaps indicative of how far behind much of the world is.

[RI]

How is this a surprise?



NOx is a production pollutant which is well-known to follow the EKC (unlike some consumption pollutants).

Two problems here.
1: The Curve cannot reverse serious damage to biodiversity or polar ice caps.
2: The Curve in terms of emissions reduction is just now close to being grasped by the US, perhaps indicative of how far behind much of the world is.

CO2 is a consumption pollutant, and there is, AFAIK, no evidence yet that consumption pollutants follow the EKC (although it's possible we have simply yet to reach the peak of the CO2 EKC). NOx, which is what the article is talking about, is a production pollutant and thus should follow the EKC.

[Kingpoleon]

CO2 is a consumption pollutant, and there is, AFAIK, no evidence yet that consumption pollutants follow the EKC (although it's possible we have simply yet to reach the peak of the CO2 EKC). NOx, which is what the article is talking about, is a production pollutant and thus should follow the EKC.

There is a small body of evidence suggesting that the peak of the CO2 EKC is being neared, though how close we are is unknown.

I apologize - I did not see the distinction between the two in the sentence under the graph.

[pbrower2a]

People not burning as much wood as fuel?