The drivers of air pollution in the development of western China: The case of Sichuan province

China has implemented the Western Development Strategy to support the socioeconomic development of its western region since 2000. The development progress, however, appears to come at the cost of air quality. Reversing this trend is imperative for both the public and the Chinese government, which has frequently emphasized its commitment to not repeat the pollution first and then treatment experience of developed countries. With official statistical information and data from peer-reviewed literature, this study estimates the fine particles (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions of the economic sectors of Sichuan province, which is the largest economy in western China, and uses structural decomposition analysis to measure the contribution of different socioeconomic driving forces to the emissions change from 2002 to 2012. The results show that, the efficiency gains of PM2.5 and SO2 have prevailed over the emissions-increasing effect of economic expansion, while for NOX, the efficiency contribution still lags behind the impact of economic scale. The large-scale infrastructure investment and the rapid expansion of the real estate sector boosted Sichuan's economy but exacerbated regional air pollution. Overall, a more emissions-efficient, material-efficient and structurally-optimized production system is the overarching pollution reduction strategy. In addition, the GDP structure should be optimized to more adequately meet the changing consumption demands of the public instead of merely investing in profitable but emissions-heavy sectors such as construction. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.