China drawing up ‘fresh battle plan’ to tackle smog
Government says it is working on a three-year initiative to further tackle the country’s chronic air pollution
China is drawing up plans to extend curbs on smog from this year to 2020, an environment ministry official said on Wednesday, after a five-year crackdown on pollution helped it meet its air quality targets last month.
Liu Youbin, a spokesman at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said officials were now working on “a three-year battle plan in the war to protect blue skies”, involving tighter regulations for major industrial regions like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas.
He did not say when details would be released.
China’s previous action plan against smog, covering 2013-2017, forced the smog-prone Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to take action to reduce concentrations of hazardous particles known as PM2.5 by more than 25 per cent.
Despite near-record PM2.5 readings in January and February last year, northern China managed to meet 2013-2017 air quality targets by the end of 2017, largely thanks to a campaign that forced polluting factories in 28 cities to reduce output over the winter.
The campaign is due to end in March and amid concerns that enterprises and local governments could lower their guard after reaching the 2017 targets, China has also been trying to “normalise compliance” and put firms under more permanent scrutiny and pressure.