In the late 1970s, China introduced a series of economic reforms that accelerated industrialisation and urbanisation. These reforms transformed the country’s economy and led to economic growth. However, they also gave rise to environmental challenges, particularly water pollution, air pollution, and biodiversity loss.
The expansion of heavy industry, manufacturing, energy production, and urban development placed great pressure on China’s natural resources. Industrial wastewater from manufacturing factories and mining operations contaminated rivers and lakes, while coal-fired energy production and increasing vehicle emissions degraded air quality. At the same time, deforestation, infrastructure development, and land conversion led to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss.
It was within this context that Ma began his work as an environmental journalist. Through reporting across China in the 1990s, he witnessed the environmental consequences of rapid industrialisation firsthand. These experiences shaped his environmental priorities and inspired his later efforts through the IPE to make companies accountable for their environmental performance.
In a 2023 post-Conference of the Parties 28 discussion, Ma Jun outlined his environmental priorities in the context of the United Nations’ triple planetary crisis. The framework identifies climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss as the world’s three interconnected environmental challenges. He argued that, in China, these challenges occur simultaneously and therefore require integrated solutions rather than being addressed in isolation. In his speech, he explicitly identified water pollution, air pollution, and biodiversity loss as key environmental issues requiring coordinated action.
Water Pollution
On a global scale, water pollution has been described as the presence of harmful substances such as excess nutrients, heavy metals, and toxic compounds in the water due to rapid economic development, industrialisation, and agriculture. In China, water pollution began in the 1950s due to industrial development leading to the release of urban sewage and industrial discharge. Since then it has continued to worsen, with major pollution of rivers beginning in the 1970s and continuing to worsen year by year.
Pollution worsens an existing scarcity problem. China contains 20% of the world’s population but less than 7% of the world’s freshwater resources, leading to shortages across large cities. China faces significant regional imbalances in water availability, as shown in Figure 1. While around 50% of the population and 60% of the country’s cultivated land are located in northern China, the region contains only 14% of the country’s water resources. This imbalance and rising water demand have led to a water crisis, as even in water-rich areas, pollution has decreased the amount of clean usable water. Ultimately, access to clean water for various communities across China has been interrupted, and there are threats to public health due to the proliferation of disease-causing pathogens.
Due to water pollution, half of China’s population does not have access to clean water, and groundwater has been identified as contaminated in 90% of Chinese cities. It contains toxic levels of arsenic, fluorine, and sulfates, which are compounds that have been correlated with high rates of liver, stomach, and esophageal cancer. In addition, various projects that utilize groundwater supplies, such as irrigation, have led to overexploitation of groundwater supplies, which resulted in a 25% decline in groundwater supplies and losses of 60 billion cubic meters of groundwater annually. This is critical because 70% of the Chinese population relies on groundwater as a source of drinking water. Various studies have used groundwater survey data and machine learning models to predict areas at greatest risk of poor groundwater quality and low groundwater yields. Their findings identify Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast China as the most affected regions, as shown in Figure 2.
The aforementioned uncontrolled industrialisation and urbanisation processes have also resulted in overuse of fertilizers, improper management of sewage, and unmanaged industrial waste. This, according to 2024 estimates, resulted in 80-90% of groundwater being unsuitable for drinking, 50% of water being too polluted for agricultural use, and 75% of lakes and reservoirs being too polluted for fishing activity and human consumption.
Air Pollution
On a global scale, air pollution is characterised by exposure to fine particles in polluted air, which are able to penetrate the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. In China, some of the main contributing factors to air pollution include industry, transportation, coal power plants, and household fuel usage. Additional contributors include heightened use of fossil fuels, biomass burning, traffic emissions, and soil dust.
Due to air pollution, there has been an increase in strokes, heart disease, pulmonary diseases, and respiratory infections. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution accounts for approximately 2 million deaths in China per year. Of these, around 1 million deaths are attributed to ambient and 1 million to household air pollution. This has made China one of the world’s most polluted countries.
The severity of air pollution is commonly measured using PM2.5 concentrations. PM2.5 is best described as particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter which originates primarily from industrial emissions, household activities, and vehicles. These particles are the primary pollutant in air quality reports due to their ability to remain suspended in the air for days and are responsible for immediate and long-term health risks. These risks include short-term symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, and throat irritation. Additionally, long-term difficulties include asthma, irregular heartbeat, bronchitis, and heart and lung disease.
In 2020, the country’s annual average PM2.5 concentration reached 29.6 μg/m³, nearly six times higher than the WHO’s recommended annual guideline of 5 μg/m³. As a result, China ranked among the world’s 20 most polluted countries that year. Additionally, it was found that in 2020, 99% of China’s inhabitants lived in areas where fine particle concentrations exceed WHO recommendations, and 43% lived in areas that do not meet Chinese national standards.
Biodiversity Loss
On a global scale, biodiversity loss refers to the loss of animal and plant species across an area through death, manual removal, or habitat destruction. In China, biodiversity loss has been a result of habitat loss and environmental degradation due to industrialisation and rapid human development, including urbanisation and expansion of agricultural land use. China has been characterised as one of the seventeen mega-biodiverse countries in the world. These are countries characterised by being home to a large portion of the world’s biodiversity and providing essential ecosystem services. Due to overexploitation and increased pressure, various habitats in China are now threatened and vulnerable, including grasslands, wetlands, and desert areas.
Biodiversity loss has led to a 50% decline in China’s vertebrate species and has severely degraded three major ecosystems. Some 90% of the country’s grasslands have been affected, with many experiencing desertification. In addition, 40% of wetlands, including mudflats and mangroves, have been degraded.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, biodiversity loss has been due to threats such as economic growth and industrialisation. Additional pressures include the introduction of invasive species, the release of genetically modified organisms, and the expansion of biofuel production. As a result, 60% of China’s endemic plant and animal species are threatened, 44% of wild animal populations are in decline, and 15–20% of wild plant species are at risk of extinction.
Research has also shown that the consumption of products such as beef, mutton, and other meats has contributed significantly to biodiversity loss in China, as illustrated in Figure 4. Across Chinese regions, these products account for 39.1% of plant biodiversity loss and 45.4% of vertebrate biodiversity loss. In provinces with extensive cropland, grain consumption contributes a further 24.3% of both plant and vertebrate biodiversity loss. These impacts have led to economic losses for local populations across various sectors. For example, in the fishing industry, declining freshwater fish populations have resulted in smaller, less frequent, and less valuable catches.
Together, water pollution, air pollution, and biodiversity loss have significant global consequences but are particularly severe in China. Their worsening impacts have attracted growing domestic attention, with citizens increasingly demanding stronger environmental protection in response to their harmful effects on public health. As discussed above, these impacts include higher rates of stroke, heart disease, pulmonary disease, respiratory infections, and liver, stomach, and oesophageal cancers.
By the late 2000s, growing public concern over these health and environmental impacts was increasingly manifesting in protests across China. Politicians such as Chen Jiping, a former member of the Communist Party, described environmental issues as a cause for peaceful protests and riots. In 2013 alone, 712 environmental protests were reported across rural and urban areas across China, including demonstrations in Shanghai, Ningbo, Kunming, and Guangdong. As internet access expanded, information about pollution incidents and environmental violations became more visible to the public, which further strengthened public concern and citizen activism. Consumers and environmental organisations such as the IPE began publicly exposing polluting companies, which led to multinational corporations such as Apple facing criticism over pollution within their supply chains.
These developments, which were driven by growing public pressure, together with what he had witnessed first-hand, help explain why Ma Jun became a leading advocate for environmental transparency. By witnessing the impact that informed public participation could have on environmental protection and corporate behavior, he recognised that access to reliable environmental information was essential for driving environmental action by pressuring companies to improve their environmental performance. All these environmental challenges ultimately fueled his desire to demand change in companies and have resulted in his work in developing tools such as the Blue Map to expose big polluters and involve the public in the fight for environmental protection.
IE x RAIA Summer Research Programme
This article is an excerpt from a report on Ma Jun produced as part of a RAIA research programme on climate leaders. For a full picture of Ma Jun’s climate leadership, including the sources, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs and School of Science and Technology.
Authors: Sami Kayani Mahmood Kausar, Viktoria Vekova & Daniela Bermudez Bolivar
Editor: Réka Baranyai
Project Lead: Dario Hasenstab
