In a recent article, China’s Air-Quality Improvements Have Hastened Global Warming, The Economist raises a scientifically valid but incompletely framed point: As China removes large volumes of sulfate-aerosol pollution, the short-term cooling those particles provided is diminished, contributing to global warming.

This physical mechanism is well established. What The Economist article misses, however, is the larger story of significant importance.

China is undertaking one of the world’s most demanding transitions — protecting public health by improving air quality while simultaneously decarbonizing its economy.

A success is misread as a problem.

The article frames risks in a way that implies that China’s highly successful clean-air efforts have created a new climate problem. In fact, the opposite is true.

China’s “ war on smog”, launched in response to the 2013 “airpocalypse”, has delivered enormous public health benefits.

The national average of PM2.5 — fine particulate concentrations in the air — has fallen from roughly 63 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to about 33 mcg/cu m in 2020, according to official reports (China Daily, 2024).

Independent assessments by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago show that these reductions have already added years to average life expectancies in major Chinese cities (EPIC, 2023).

Portraying such achievements as problematic diminishes one of the world’s largest and most successful environmental health campaigns.

The article also omits the parallel transformation of China’s energy system.

China has pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

As part of delivering on the commitment made in 2020 at the United Nations, China leads the world in installed renewable energy capacity, now exceeding 2,200 gigawatts of hydro, solar, wind, and biomass power, according to the National Energy Administration of China (NEA, 2025).

China is also investing heavily in electrified transport, energy storage, energy efficiency, clean fuels, and green finance mechanisms.

The real message should be clear: China’s clean-air success exemplifies responsible transition and reminds the world that global decarbonization must accelerate so that cleaner air and a stable climate advance together

Unlike industrialized nations that cleaned their air after achieving economic development and becoming wealthy, China is pursuing clean air and low-carbon growth simultaneously — a much more complex, but more responsible, path.

China acknowledges that it is the world’s largest carbon emitter, responsible for about 28 percent of global emissions. But scale can be misleading. With a population four times that of the United States, China’s per capita emissions are far lower, at around 8 metric tons of CO2 per person, compared with 14 tons in the US.

This contrast, between China’s total emissions and America’s higher per-person footprint, has long fueled tension in global climate talks. The issue flared again at the climate talks at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, where China’s representative argued that per capita emissions, development stage, and population size must all be considered when apportioning responsibility for climate action, in response to the US delegate’s emphasis on China’s position as the world’s largest emitter.

The physical relationship between aerosols and surface temperature is real, but it should not be misunderstood or misused.

The temporary warming that follows cleaner air highlights that pollution-driven cool is a dangerous illusion, one that came at the cost of millions of premature deaths each year.

The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes about 7 million deaths annually worldwide. No society can justify poisoning its own citizens merely to buy time on decarbonization.

The short-lived cooling role of sulfates cannot offset the persistent and cumulative warming from CO2. Removing sulfates did not create new warming — instead, it revealed the warming that was already there. The article of The Economist is like saying removing a blindfold “hastens” seeing an approaching danger.

The only responsible path forward is to accelerate global carbon reduction through efforts such as renewable energy expansion, energy efficiency improvements, and pricing carbon, so that cleaner air and climate stability can advance together.

The article’s closing reference to geoengineering touches on an issue of enormous consequence but insufficiently emphasizes its risks.

Techniques such as stratospheric aerosol injection could alter rainfall patterns, disrupt monsoons, or unintentionally cooling some regions while drying others. Such global-scale interventions must never be unilateral. The world cannot afford bold unipolar decisions on climate manipulation.

Any discussion of geoengineering must proceed through careful, transparent, and science-based multipolar dialogue under internationally recognized frameworks such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

If ever considered, these approaches must complement, not replace, carbon-neutral or carbon-negative strategies, such as deep decarbonization, carbon removal, and carbon pricing.

Above all, they must move cautiously and with collective consent, as their consequences are complex and challenging to reverse.

China’s environmental policies demonstrate a commitment to clean growth that protects its citizens while contributing to the achievement of long-term global climate goals.

A fair reading of recent progress would acknowledge this delicate balance rather than reducing it to a side effect of atmospheric chemistry.

The real message should be clear: China’s clean-air success exemplifies responsible transition and reminds the world that global decarbonization must accelerate so that cleaner air and a stable climate advance together.

Alexis Lau is head and chair professor of the Division of Environment and Sustainability, where CM Shun and Christine Loh are adjunct professors, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.