During the week of June 24, 2019, the World Bank in collaboration with the Austrian Government and the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria arranged a combined air quality management (AQM) policy delegation and an AQM technical delegation from China to Austria.
The policy delegation, coming mainly from the China Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), focused on gaining AQM experiences from the European Union (EU), selected European countries (Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark and the Czech Republic) and the overall UNECE Convention for Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CTLRAP) area focusing on both institutions and effective AQM polices that have resulted in particularly European countries and cities largely reaching WHO standards over the last few years.
The technical delegation coming mainly from the China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES) and provincial CRAES affiliates within the expanded Jingjinji region, focused on adapting the IIASA-developed Greenhouse Gas – Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model to local conditions of the expanded Jinjjinji region.
Through the joint political and technical programs, which was funded by the World Bank’s Pollution Management and Environmental Health (PMEH) program, China will develop and implement AQM plans that is based on cost-effectiveness assessment in their 14th Five year plan (2021-25) that will further improve the air quality both in the expanded Jingjinji region and also other regions in China that has high air pollution concentrations. This will result in substantively improved environmental health conditions.