Background
Over the last decade, China’s air quality has been improved and the air pollution has been relieved to a certain extent, but there is still a long way to go. Thanks to receiving more environmental monitoring data on air quality and having joint efforts by all the Chinese people in controlling air pollution, the annual pm2.5 levels in Beijing have dropped by more than a half, and Beijing is no longer among the top 200 of the most polluted cities in the world.
However, it should be noted that the air quality index of 98% Chinese cities still exceed WHO air quality guidelines and 47 cities of them were listed as the 100 most polluted cities according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report. From construction sites’ dust to haze, air pollution is everywhere in Chinese people’s lives. It is important to discuss how every Chinese citizen raise their awareness on environmental protection, and how to protect the world we live in. Therefore, SRP collaborated with Smart Air, and together we organized this webinar, in which we invite air pollution experts and young talents from various fields to solve the air pollution problem.
About the Project
The project is sponsored by SRP and Smart Air as co-organizers and supported by Beijing SinoCarbon Education & Training Corporation. Meanwhile, there are 16 joint communicators engaging in the promotion of this event.
The main form of this event was delivered as online seminar. During this event, the organizer shared the original purpose and meaning of hosting this event; Ms Wenou Gao gave a speech on “UN Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action”, and researcher Qingxian Gao shared his insights on the project named “In front of my window”. In addition, Smart Air also shared scientific knowledge about air pollution with participants in the seminar. Meanwhile, the online seminar invited young people who have research, practical, and/or NGO experience in the field of climate sustainability to share their insights related to air pollution, and especially invited Bo Wang, the founder of Shimmer SDGs HUB, who is particularly focusing on youth and sustainable topics, to engage in a conversational discussion.
For the purpose of increasing public influence of this event and having more people pay attention to environmental protection and air pollution issues, SRP and Smart Air launched a special event called “online environmental monitoring check-in activity” while the webinar was held. Participants can post their pictures filming the sky and mark down the air quality index, the time and the location of pictures being taken on the social media platform Weibo with hashtag #Concerns about Air Quality with SRP & Smart Air, and they can also share this information on other social media platform such as Moments on WeChat. After collecting these pictures, Smart Air analyzed these data and compiled a visual summary of presenting regional air pollution in China. Event participants will receive a certificate of participation provided by the organizer.
Project Results
The project, “Air Pollution Seminar and Youth Action” , co-organized by SRP and Smart Air, was successfully held on December 13, 2020, at 7 pm. SRP and Smart Air jointly launched a six-day online environmental monitoring check-in activity. In the meantime, SRP also planned and organized two questionnaires related to environmental issues, which gained more than 1000 followers, attracted more than 200 participants and received more than 200 questionnaire answers. By doing this event and various other activities, SRP intends to call for more people to pay attention to environmental protection and air pollution issues.
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