Clean Air Scorecard Helps Clear the Air in the People's Republic of China

This publication showcases how the Clean Air Scorecard can help cities in Asia comprehensively assess air pollution levels and air quality management capacity.

The Clean Air Scorecard was developed by Clean Air Asia through the assistance of the Asian Development Bank. The scorecard is an innovation from the traditional ways of monitoring air quality, which is usually done through ranking, e.g., the top ten cities with the best air quality. The scorecard does away with this type of analysis by introducing three indices and a scoring system that lets cities concretely gauge air quality and their capacity to manage it. These indices are on air pollution and health, on clean air management capacity, and on policies and actions. Each index in the tool consists of relevant questions for which points can be allocated. Higher scores mean better air quality, policies, and measures.

The scorecard was piloted in Hangzhou and Jinan in the People’s Republic of China in 2010. The successful application in these Chinese cities spurred plans to scale up its application Asia-wide to promote knowledge exchange and cooperation.