With a population approaching 1.5 billion and a land area of more than nine million square kilometers, China is big by any standards. Its pollution challenges match its size. While recent initiatives have somewhat reduced airborne particulates, China still bears the highest cost for fossil-fuel-related pollution, as a percentage of GDP, of any country. Nearly a million deaths in 2017 were attributable to fine-particle pollution. According to the State of Global Air Report, the entire population of China lives in areas that that fail to meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines.
These statistics, while sobering, pale in comparison to the human costs. Charlotte Wang, founder of EQuota Energy Technology, experienced these costs directly. “I grew up in a village near coal-fired power plants,” she says. The seriousness of the problem became evident when she left to attend college in the United States. “I had really bad sinuses. Before I left for the U.S., it had become a major issue. Every two weeks I had to go to a clinic to drain the pressure. I had a whole bag of medicine when I landed in the States. Within one week after leaving China, I didn’t have any issues.”