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COP-AQ

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TranHung
10:45 12/02/2026

The UK-China Collaboration to Optimise net zero Policy options for Air Quality and health (COP-AQ) is a consortium of universities and research institutes in the UK working with partners in China to identify research priorities to optimise Net Zero and Carbon Neutrality strategies and maximise co-benefits for air quality and health. COP-AQ is funded by the UK Research and Innovation - Natural Environment Research Council and is built upon the Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in a Chinese Megacity (APHH-China) research community.

Air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths per year globally. About 25% of these premature deaths occur in China, due to the country’s severe air pollution and large population. In the UK, poor air quality is responsible for around 36,000 premature deaths per year. In addition to the health burden, air pollution exerts significant direct and indirect economic costs potentially reaching several percent of GDP/year.Although clean air actions and technological change have substantially reduced air pollution emissions in recent years in China and the UK, there is new scientific evidence that further reductions are required to protect human health, which has been reflected in the updated WHO air quality guidelines.

The current policies in the UK and China may be insufficient for pollutant levels to comply with the updated guidelines. However, a key opportunity to achieve the new air quality objectives arises from the Net Zero (UK) or Carbon Neutrality policies (China) that aim to tackle the increasing impacts of climate change as a result of rising levels of greenhouse gases. COP-AQ seeks to address this challenge.

Objectives

  • To understand the research needs to deliver future air pollutant emission projections based on plausible pathways to Net Zero / Carbon Neutrality, to model future air quality, and to evaluate health benefits / impacts.
  • To determine the optimum observation and data science framework needed to evidence the air quality and health benefits of Net Zero/Carbon Neutrality options and to identify potential negative consequences.
  • To develop methodologies to optimise Net Zero/Carbon Neutrality co-benefits for health equity, considering variations across space and time compared with population vulnerability.
  • To advance UK-China partnerships and interdisciplinary capacity in delivering the underpinning science to deliver win-win solutions for Net Zero/Carbon Neutrality and air quality.

Research Programme

COP-AQ aims to identify research priorities to optimise the UK’s Net Zero and China’s Carbon Neutrality policies to maximise co-benefits for Air Quality and Health. A total of nine case studies have been developed to deliver COP-AQ objectives. The International Workshop on Net Zero and Air Quality aims to identify the current state of quantitative understanding of the impacts of Net Zero and Carbon Neutrality goals on Air Quality and Health and cross-disciplinary research challenges. The China-UK Scoping Workshop aims to define the agenda for future research and programme to optimise Net Zero and Carbon Neutrality strategies for Air Quality and Health. Furthermore, COP-AQ has provided network opportunities for early career researchers through the Winter School 2021 on Data Science for Climate and Air Quality Research.