China’s Hebei province promises new assault on smog after 2017 spike
Province has drawn up 18 new plans but party chief calls for patience in resolving pollution issue
Heavily polluted Hebei province in northern China plans more action to shut “backward” coal-fired power plants, promote new energy vehicles and relocate more industries, it said on Saturday after a surge in smog levels in January and February.
Hebei, home to six of China’s 10 smoggiest cities in the first two months of 2017, is on the frontline of a three-year “war on pollution”, and has already promised to slash coal consumption and close inefficient industrial plants.
But the province has been accused of pursuing “form over substance” when it comes to fighting pollution.
Despite improvements, Hebei, together with neighbouring Beijing and Tianjin, saw concentrations of small breathable particles known as PM2.5 rise 48 per cent in the first two months of 2017 after several bouts of persistent smog.
At a meeting of government officials on Friday, Hebei Communist party chief Zhao Kezhi said the province had drawn up 18 new “special implementation plans”, but he also called for “patience”, saying there was still a long way to go before Hebei’s problems could be resolved.
Hebei is China’s biggest steelmaking region and, despite cutting capacity, output rose 2.3 per cent to 192.6 million tonnes last year, nearly a quarter of the national total.