A professor at Polytechnic University has been picked to head up a 26 million yuan research programme on acid rain in China.
Professor Wang Tao will be chief scientist on the National Basic Research Programme involving 80 researchers and 60 students from the mainland and Poly U.
The five-year project set up by the Chinese Research Academy on Environmental Sciences will look at how acid rain is formed, its impact on the environment and how to tackle the problem in China.
Professor Wang said that acid rain affected 30 per cent of the mainland, one of only three territories in the world where the affected area was expanding.
'Since China is undergoing rapid economic growth, active steps must be taken to control the spread of acid rain,' he said.
Since 1992, Professor Wang has been involved in a joint project with Nasa on atmospheric change in the North Pacific and heads Poly U's atmospheric chemistry research laboratory at Hok Tsui.