Scholars Discuss China's Air

Three prominent University scholars discussed the application of quantitative methods in taking on the challenge of air pollution at a public event yesterday sponsored by the Harvard China Fund (HCF).

The organization, “an internal [Harvard] foundation to support research and teaching about and in China” according to its Web site, hosted the seminar entitled “Reconciling Economic Growth and Air Pollution Control in China: An Integrated Approach.”

The event’s speakers included School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor Chris P. Nielsen and other researchers working on air pollution and pollution control policies in China.

A two-year grant from HCF has allowed the researchers to collaborate with counterparts from China’s Tsinghua University on a long-term study designed to evaluate the country’s emission-control policies.

The project uses an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates atmospheric and economic modeling and health risk assessment, according to the speakers.

This involves comprehensive inventories of emissions and cost-benefit analyses of alternative national policies to control pollutants.

“Our primary goal is not to change policy,” Nielsen said. “Our goal is to build the scholarship.”

He called for peer-reviewed, published studies on the topic to complement the existing literature.

Though the researchers emphasized the long-term nature of the project, they also encouraged its immediate application.

“In the short run this is really a bad problem,” said Mun Ho, a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences.

He reminded the audience that the benefits of reducing pollution far outweigh the costs.

China’s air pollution track record has come under scrutiny recently in the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

The government has committed to cleaning the city’s air in time for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, though the speakers said they felt such short-term solutions fall short of addressing the problem.