Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming

A recent bounce in the rate of global warming is largely inspired by China’s efforts to reduce air pollution, questions about how air quality rules are affecting the climate and we understand the effects of removing aerosol completely from the atmosphere. This additional warming, which was being masked by aerosol, increases global temperature from 5 percent since 1850.

In the early 2000s, China had extremely poor air quality as a result of rapid industrialization, causing a public outrage in the run-up …