Coal and China - How Bad is it? (Grist Magazine)

This is an extract from an article "interview with Michael Liebreich" published in GRIST Magazine on July 3rd, 2012

And now you see them worrying about air quality. Where is China on the Kuznet’s curve? You could argue that they’re reaching the peak. When I first went to Seoul, it was a horribly clogged city with air quality problems. I’ve been back in recent years and they’re clearly over the top of [the curve]. They’re talking green growth, they’ve restored the river through the city, you can see the mountains around Seoul — I didn’t even know there were mountains when I went in the ’90s. It’s clear that Shanghai and Beijing don’t want to live in this air soup. They want a decent quality of life as they get wealthier.

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