China's Air Pollution Inequality: Causes, Health Inequality Consequences, And Understanding The Policy Innovation

China's residents experience unequal exposure to air pollution in different regions and the corresponding health consequences have increased remarkably.These issues have drawn the importance of the Chinese government's response to implement new policies.Therefore,this study investigates air pollution inequality and health inequality in China during the period of the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans(FYPs,2006-2015).In terms of air pollution,inequalities in SO2 and NO,emissions are measured by observing their extraordinary levels and uneven distribution in China.Also,the provincial and regional analysis utilizing the Theil index and Kaya factors helps to find the trajectory of air pollution inequality and its primary sources.Based on analysis,this study concludes the driving factors behind emissions inequalities are as follows.There are four economic factors of per capita SO2 emission:SO2 emission intensity of coal consumption,coal intensity of power generation,power intensity of GDP,and per capita GDP.Additionally,there are four urban development factors of per capita NOx emission:NOx emission intensity of gasoline consumption,proportion of gasoline vehicles,vehicle use in urban population,and urbanization rate.The SO2 emission results represent an increase of 6%in overall inequality where the inequality of power intensity of GDP is the main contributor.The level of between-region and within-region inequality increased after 2010.In terms of NO.emission,the 3%growth in total inequality is related to the high effect of NOx emission intensity of gasoline consumption.Within-region inequality is more responsible for overall inequality due to the western region disparity.The effect of other factors affecting the trajectory of inequalities is also examined.The economic disparity seems to increase SO2 emission inequality while the reduction of urban development disparity alleviated NOx emission inequality particularly after 2014.To apply these results in practice,the 11th and 12th FYPs are compared in order to give some policy suggestions.To ensure sustainable development,China should monitor health inequality and the potential determinants of it.This study empirically examines the health inequalities(in perinatal and tuberculosis mortalities)caused by air pollution inequalities(in SO2 and NOx emissions)from the panel data set of 31 Chinese provinces,using two techniques,the generalized method of moments(GMM)and quantile regression(QR).This study utilizes GMM to control the endogeneity problem in the estimation.In addition,QR is used to analyze the variety of associations throughout the health inequality distribution.The results of GMM reveal a strong positive relationship between SO2/NOx emission inequality and tuberculosis mortality inequality.In contrast,the QR results show that perinatal mortality inequality is closely related to emission inequality across all percentiles for SO2 emission and at the 75th percentile for NOx emission.Moreover,the analysis considers the impacts of inequality in income,number of beds,and health expenditure.These findings help policymakers to identify health disparities and be mindful of air pollution inequality as a factor in the elimination of health inequality.Finally,this study suggests the policy innovation to alleviate air pollution inequality and related-health inequality impacts.Policy innovation-has been freshly emerged into the climate change policy making-applies invention(sources of new policy),diffusion(patterns of policy adoption)and evaluation(assessment the effect of new policy)during policymaking process.The Chinese government can implement policy innovation into local and national environmental health plans to coordinate local efforts in air pollution controls and health care improvement to reduce unequal distribution as part of a sustainable society.