Designation of acid rain and SO2 control zones and control policies in China

China has become the largest producer of SO2 emissions in the world. Thus e ffective SO2 emission and acid rain controls are urgently needed. This pape r designated the priority control zones for both SO2 emission and acid prec ipitation in China. The Control Zones were identified as an area of 1.09x10 (6) km(2), about 11.4% of the China's territory and about 14 Million tons S O2 emissions. The Acid Rain Control Zones involved 14 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities, with 806000 km(2), about 8.4% of the national t erritory. The SO2 Pollution Control Zones had 290000 km(2), about 3% of the national territory. The policies against SO2 emissions were also formulate d based on the coal life-cycle assessment. In the short term, it was sugges ted that affordable countermeasures should be taken to reduce SO2 emissions from sources, mainly including shutdown or retrofit of high-sulfur-coal mi nes, coal processing, and utilization of desulfurizing technologies in powe r plants. In the long term, clean coal technologies should be developed to avoid SO2 emissions from sources. The Chinese Government has accepted the d esignation results and the corresponding control policies.