Revealing varying relationships between wastewater mercury emissions and economic growth in Chinese cities.

Environ Pollut

State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, PR China; The Center for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Regional Environment, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, PR China; The Center for Eco-Environmental Accounting, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, PR China. Electronic address:

Published: January 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Mercury emissions from industrial wastewater have a significant but under-researched impact on aquatic environments in China, highlighted through an analysis involving data from 340 cities between 2000-2010.
  • Over this period, total mercury emissions rose by about 5 times, with a smaller increase in emission intensity (3%), and only a small percentage of cities showed effective decoupling of economic growth from emissions.
  • The findings indicate a notable imbalance in emissions across cities, though improvements were observed during the decade, aimed at enhancing understanding of industrial pollution dynamics.

Article Abstract

Mercury emission from industrial wastewater has a great impact on the aquatic environment but is not well studied. Inventory analysis, decoupling and decomposition methods have been conducted based on the China Pollution Source Census dataset, which combines industry removal efficiencies to calculate mercury emissions from industrial wastewater in 340 cities in China during 2000-2010. The results show that over these 11 years, total mercury emissions and per capita mercury emissions increased by approximately 5 times, while the emission intensity increased by only about 3%. From 2000 to 2010, only 0.59% of cities showed strong decoupling between economic growth and mercury emissions, and 37.65% of cities showed weak decoupling, whereas 38.82% of cities showed negative decoupling. We attribute the decoupling of economic development and emissions in individual cities to several socioeconomic factors and find that a decline in emission intensity is the main driver. The Gini coefficient indicates a significant imbalance between cities' emissions, but this situation improved during 2000-2010. The objective of this article is to provide a historical perspective on the situation of mercury emissions from wastewater in China, thereby contributing' to the broader understanding of industrial pollution.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122944DOI Listing

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