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Emission records reveal high-speed rail can improve regional environmental inequality in China

The introduction of high-speed rail reduced spatial environmental inequality in China by helping elements such as green technologies spread across the country.

Shengjun Zhu and colleagues hypothesized that the introduction of high-speed rail between 1998 and 2010 helped facilitate the spread of elements including capital, labor, green technology, and information, particularly from leading to lagging areas. These trends could contribute to the reduction of industrial pollution, and the authors hypothesized that the effects would be more pronounced in lagging areas than in leading areas.

The research is in PNAS Nexus.

Regression analyses based on detailed emission records from industrial firms show that firm-level emissions of sulfur dioxide, dust, wastewater, and chemical oxygen demand (an indicator of poor water quality) all fell between 5%–14% in specific regions after being connected to the new rail network—and that the effect was larger for underdeveloped areas like the central inland provinces and northeastern regions.

The authors also found an increase in per-capita filings of total patents and green technology patents in cities after connecting to the rail network. Aggregating firm-level pollution emissions to the national level, the authors estimate a 0.49%–1.70% reduction in national industrial pollution due to the introduction of high-speed rail.

According to the authors, high-speed rail plays a significant and positive role in achieving inter-regional environmental equality and could help lagging regions catch up with leading regions, with implications for other developing countries that are undergoing industrialization and faced with pressing environmental burdens.