China has reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by more than two-thirds in the last 15 years
One rapidly declining pollutant is sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ), which generates smog and can cause acid rain. Its primary source is coal burning.
In the chart, you can see the annual emissions of SO 2 in China. They rose steeply during the 1980s and 1990s. But they peaked in the mid-2000s, and over the last 15 years, they have fallen by more than two-thirds.
Putting emissions limits on coal plants and introducing desulphurization technologies that remove SO 2 from smokestacks were critical drivers of this decline.
In 2023, Norwegians gave $1,160 in foreign aid — more than twice the amount contributed by people in other large Western countries.
By comparison, people in countries like the United States and Japan gave much less, at $190 and $155 per person, respectively.
One factor behind Norway’s substantial foreign aid is its sovereign wealth fund, built from oil revenues. The fund is valued at around $1.8 trillion — about the size of the Australian economy — and provides financial resources that few nations can match.
