More factories but less pollution: how China’s green tech revolution works

In 2006, he founded the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) – a non-profit environmental research organisation based in Beijing.

At the time, data collected by his organisation showed around 28 per cent of monitored water sources nationwide were severely polluted and rendered unusable, leaving nearly 300 million people without sufficient clean drinking water, causing disease outbreaks in some regions.

But significant improvements have been seen in water quality over the years, with more than 90 per cent of water at national control sections now being graded as “excellent”, “good” or “fair”, according to Ma.

Research also shows that, from 2015 to 2022, the average annual level of PM2.5 – particles in the air measuring less than 2.5 micrometres and a key indicator of air pollution – fell by around 35.6 per cent nationwide.

This reduction is similar in scale to the improvements achieved by the United States across three decades under the Clean Air Act.

This is not deindustrialisation-driven environmentalism, but rather industrialisation-driven decarbonisation – a revolution powered by deploying cutting-edge technology, real-time monitoring and massive investments in green infrastructure.

South China Morning Post