China has rapidly reduced sulphur dioxide emissions in the last 15 years

China has dramatically reduced local air pollution levels — particularly in its biggest cities — in the last decade.

One rapidly declining pollutant is sulphur dioxide (SO2), which generates smog and can cause acid rain. Its primary source is coal burning.

In the chart, you can see the annual emissions of SO2 in China. They rose steeply during the 1980s and 1990s. But they peaked in the mid-2000s, and over the last 15 years, they have fallen by more than two-thirds.

Putting emissions limits on coal plants and introducing desulphurization technologies that remove SO2 from smokestacks were critical drivers of this decline.

These are modeled estimates from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS).

(This Daily Data Insight was written by Hannah Ritchie.)