China's plan to clean up its air might actually cause more global warming due to the increased emission of carbon dioxide, according to a joint study between the United States and China.

If China develops a plan to clean the air via using pollution-cleaning technologies that run on coal-generated electricity, it could greatly contribute to global warming even if the quality of China's air improves, the study explained.

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The study was from the researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Beijing's Tsinghua University. The findings, which were published last week, showed that the carbon dioxide emission will not be reduced even if China pushes for cleaner urban air.

China's plan to clean the air is one of the top priorities of the country because it has reached record-breaking pollution levels beginning 2013. The citizens of the country called on the Chinese leaders to make steps in clearing out the smog, leading the People's Liberation Army to declare war against pollution.

China set up the "Air Pollution Action Plan" and called on citizens to limit coal-generated electricity consumption to 65 percent only. It also prohibited coal use in top three urban regions in mainland China.

The plan also aims to completely displace coal and promote the use of desulfurization and dust-removal equipment but the study said this would contribute to the global warming.

The report says that the urgency of Beijing in tackling the problem is positive and could limit carbon dioxide emissions at some point. However, they stressed that it would be a mistake to just reduce coal use because once low-cost substitutes for coal will be exhausted then China's source of energy will be more expensive in the long run.

If this happens, Chinese power producers will end up exhausting the renewable energy rather than preserving it. Once renewable energy is consumed, the green transition of China and hopes of wanting to clean the air will no longer be possible.

The authors of the study suggested that an easier approach was to charge carbon dioxide emissions in order to assure that control of the Greenhouse gases remains sealed. 

TagsPollution, global warming, Air Pollution Action Plan