Many cities in China used to be infamous for their air pollution. Now, however, the government is making a considerable effort to clean up the smog and make air in cities breathable again. There’s just one problem: Doing so is apparently making global warming worse.

As reported by The Hill, since 2010, China has significantly reduced its emissions of sulfur dioxide, a toxic byproduct of fossil-fuel combustion. This resulted in a 75-percent drop in the emissions of sulfate aerosols.

The issue is that aerosols like sulfates actually cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space or absorbing solar energy in the atmosphere. With fewer aerosols, less sunlight is being deflected or absorbed, which in turn contributes to warming. In fact, the reduction in aerosols is estimated to have caused about 0.05 degrees Celsius of additional warming per decade since 2010, and 0.07 degrees Celsius globally in total — which doesn’t sound like much, but in climate terms, it really is a lot (trust us on this one).

Now, before you say, “Why don’t we just fill the air with aerosols then?” — first, the stuff is toxic, but second, the lifespan of aerosols is also relatively short, meaning that their cooling effect basically only lasts for as long as the aerosol is in the air. So, unless you want to be constantly walking through a mist of toxic fumes in order to save us a few partial degrees of warming, we’ve gotta come up with a better long-term solution.

To be clear, scientists still say we should clean up air pollution; we just need to pair that cleaning with additional climate reduction measures.

Sounds too difficult — let’s just fill the air with Febreze and call it a day.