The reduction of polluting emissions: Evidence from China’s Five-Year Plan

Abstract

The main topic of the thesis is the analysis and evolution of the environmental issue in China. In the past, China has been characterized by a strong and rapid economic development. This has brought greater prosperity and higher living standards to many. However, it has also created problems in the environmental sphere, it has brought a high level of pollution and it has increased pressure on ecosystems and affected health outcomes. For this reason, the Chinese government has decided to introduce, within its Five-Year Plan, a section dedicated to the actions and measures that the country intends to take towards environmental protection and sustainable growth. This dissertation will be structured in three chapters. The first chapter will introduce China’s Five-Year Plan system by describing the historical evolution of these plans. Moreover, the chapter will concentrate on environmental projects and the objectives that China wants to achieve through the implementation of the 11th, 12th, and 13th Five-Year Plan, with a focus on reducing emissions of major pollutants which represents the main topic investigated in this study. The second chapter will examine the literature which is divided into theoretical and empirical studies. The literature review helps understand the effectiveness of a planned system in reducing environmental deterioration and the results that China has achieved against pollutants abatement. The third chapter constitutes the operational part of this thesis. The main purpose is to understand if China has reached the targets set in the plans regarding the reduction of the main pollutants. The temporal analysis of controlled pollutants during the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plan period is examined first. Data used in this part are collected from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. As for the 13th Five-Year Plan, expectations are provided due to a lack of data. In conclusion, the chapter will analyze the relationship between results obtained and investments made.