Australia and China partner on air pollution research

Australian and Chinese experts have teamed up to tackle air pollution, with the launch of the Australia-China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management at Beijing’s Chinese Research Academy for Environmental Sciences (CRAES) last week. The transnational research centre will investigate the science of, and solutions to, all forms of air pollution.

The centre is the culmination of years of discussions and collaborations between Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and more than 20 universities and government agencies in Australia and China. One of its founding directors is Professor Lidia Morawska, an internationally renowned pollution expert with the QUT Institute for Future Environments (IFE) and Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, who says air pollution is a large, complex and borderless problem.

“It already does immense damage to people and the environment, and that damage is expected to intensify as the populations, economies and cities of China and other developing countries expand over the coming decades,” she said.

“Pollutants from vehicles, factories and power plants, as well as airborne dust from deserts and exposed soil, cause or contribute to many health problems, especially cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as cancer.

“The health bill from these problems is significant for every country. In Australia, the cost equates to 9.4% of the country’s GDP, with about $5 billion of this spent on respiratory diseases alone.”

Professor Lidia Morawska.

QUT has a strong air pollution research program through its World Health Organization-designated International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health. In addition, the QUT Biofuel Engine Research Facility plays a key role in examining the impact of bio-based hydrocarbon fuels on emissions. Much of this work is led by Professor Zoran Ristovski, who collaborates closely with Chinese colleagues in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

Professor Morawska said the new Australia-China collaboration will expand this research effort and enhance its impact on the real world, particularly in the Western Pacific region. He said, “We will study its different origins and scales and how it affects human health and the environment; we will develop new technologies and techniques to better monitor, prevent and mitigate air pollution.

“We’ll be participating in national and international policy discussions about air pollution to help governments find the most efficient and effective ways to control it.

“The centre will also nurture the next generation of Australian and Chinese scientists, developing the people and knowledge the world needs this century to beat the problem of air pollution.”

IFE Executive Director Professor Ian Mackinnon, who played a key role in planning the new centre, added that the only way to address the scale of the problem is “through collaboration - between researchers from different disciplines and different countries and between universities, governments and industry”.

“We need physicists, chemists, statisticians and modellers working with doctors, engineers and urban planners - and all of them talking to politicians and public servants,” he said.