Air pollution ‘improving’ in Beijing, eastern Chinese cities, says Greenpeace
Capital and other areas show signs of progress, but situation in developing cities in central China and west deteriorating, says environmental pressure group
Air pollution levels in some of China’s smoggiest cities fell by nearly a third in the first quarter of this year, environmental campaign group Greenpeace said.
But pollution levels remain a major public health threat, linked to thousands of early deaths, and the group said they continue to increase in other parts of the country.
In Beijing, levels of PM2.5, airborne particulates with a diameter small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs, fell about 13 per cent in the first three months of 2015 compared to the same period a year earlier, Greenpeace said.
The organisation collated data released by China’s environmental protection ministry, which makes live figures available, but does not publish full historic or comparative statistics.
The main drivers were “the government’s strict measures to control air pollution, which have drastically reduced pollution from heavy industry in places like Hebei and Beijing”, Zhang Kai, Greenpeace East Asia Climate and Energy Campaigner, said.
Among the 74 cities that have monitored air pollution for more than a year, some saw decreases of as much as 48 per cent.
Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing and contributes to much of the pollution seen in the capital, saw PM2.5 levels plunge by 31 per cent.