A global survey of air pollution has found that China’s economic miracle has come at a price of an “airpocalypse”, with many cities shrouded in poisonous smog for much of the year. Air pollution is less severe in parts of China than it was a few years ago, but current global trends suggest a grim future, and climate change is set to have a big impact this century. It has been said that climate change could increase the number of premature deaths from air pollution by more than 15 times.

A major study found that exposure to air pollution is almost as dangerous as smoking, and reduces life expectancy by an average of 20 months. Worldwide, air pollution contributed to nearly five million deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer and chronic lung disease in 2017. It was found that China and India together were responsible for over half of the total number of global deaths, with both countries facing over 1.2 million early deaths from all air pollution in 2017.

Research has found that the life expectancy of a child born today could be reduced by an average of 20 months due to health damage caused by air pollution. Pollution levels are at the highest in South Asia, where the life expectancy for children born in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh falls by more than 30 months. It has been found that, of all health risks around the world, air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death. About half of the total deaths in 2017 occurred in China and India together, with more than 1.2 million early deaths being caused by air pollution in each country that year.

Breathing toxic air is known to damage the lungs, heart and brain, providing a serious health concern for millions of people across the world, a study shows. Poorer children in South Asia will be the worst affected, with their life expectancies cut up to 30 months short. China suffers from the highest number of deaths due to pollution, with 852,000 in 2017.

Since 2004, China has been the world’s largest generator of waste, including plastics, since 2010 at least, China has been the largest source of waste plastic flowing into the world’s oceans. The Chinese government has made efforts to use alternative biodegradable materials to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans, but there are questions about how successful they are, and how much they will contribute to improving the environment. Composting facilities capable of breaking down biodegradable plastics are non-existent in China, so the risk is that they will end up in landfills, where they will degrade as slowly as regular plastics, if at all.

Wildfires and crop burning are blanketing northern Thailand with smog, the air quality index is 379, the worst major urban reading globally and a level that’s hazardous, according to IQAir AirVisual pollution data. Thai authorities blame crop burning to clear farmland, as well as wildfires in mountainous forests amid a drought and searing heat.

A Reuters study of official data has shown that 39 northern Chinese cities have failed to meet anti-pollution targets over the last six-months. Over the six-month period, concentrations rose by 6 percent to 82 micrograms, more than double the national standard of 35 micrograms. PM2.5 actually increased in 24 cities, with central China's Henan province performing especially badly. Anyang had the strictest pollution controls of all, but it ranked the worst for air quality.

A Reuters study of official data found a majority of 39 northern Chinese cities, including Tangshan and Handan, have failed to meet anti-pollution targets during the winter cuts. This is despite the fact that steel mills in the two biggest steelmaking cities in China - Tangshan and Handan – have been required to continue production restrictions. This comes as part of local governments' efforts to improve air quality, as industrial emissions are a major source of air pollution.

In a survey of 39 cities across the country, 30 failed to reach their target for curbing dangerous particles. Despite continuous years of effort, there are heightening concerns that the country’s ‘war on pollution’ launched in 2014 faltering. The Henan steel city of Anyang was the worst performer in which residents blame the weather and the city’s position downwind from large steel bases in the neighbouring Hebei province.

Electric cars outsold fossil fuel-powered ones in Norway last month, with 58.4% of new cars sold in the country in March being battery powered which was seen as ‘historically high.’ China, the world’s biggest car market has also provided big incentives as it tries to clean up the country’s air pollution problem and be the leader in new technologies.