Chinese cities ordered to axe new projects after failing to hit winter pollution targets

China has ordered three northern cities to stop approving new projects that would increase pollution after they failed to meet air quality targets this past winter.

The mayors of Handan in Hebei province and Jincheng and Yangquan in Shanxi province were given the orders after being summoned to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in Beijing on Thursday.

The meeting came after the cities failed to meet targets to cut levels of hazardous, breathable particles known as PM2.5 between October 2017 and March this year.

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“We will continue to fight against air pollution in the name of dignity and as our mission,” Handan’s mayor, Wang Litong, said at the meeting.

China launched a campaign last October to reduce average concentrations of PM2.5 by between 10-25 per cent in 28 northern cities in an effort hit 2013-2017 air quality targets.

Although Handan was ordered to reduce traffic, cut industrial output and curb coal use in a bid to cut PM2.5 by 20 per cent over the period, it only achieved an average reduction of 15.7 per cent.

The city, a major steel and chemical-producing centre, even saw average PM2.5 concentrations increase 4.9 per cent to 86 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017, with one district experiencing a 19.7 per cent rise.

Wang said Handan would close another 300,000 tonnes of steelmaking capacity, 1.1 million tonnes of coal-producing capacity and 268 megawatts of coal-fired power by August. He said three officials have been fired and 14 given warnings.

The three cities have been ordered to come up with a detailed plan to “rectify” the situation, which they must submit to the environment ministry within 20 days, said Liu Changgen, a ministry official.

The mayor of Jincheng, Liu Feng, said the major coal and gas city would “rather sacrifice GDP growth” to curb air pollution, noting that Jincheng’s gross domestic product fell 9 per cent as a result of production curbs in the first quarter, while fixed-asset investment slumped 41 per cent.

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After struggling for years to force growth-obsessed local governments to toe the line, China’s beefed-up environment ministry now has the authority to hold officials to account for failing to comply with pollution policies.

Local authorities said last year that senior officials could face dismissal if they failed to meet winter targets.

China has already held more than 2,000 local government officials to account after they were found to have violated environmental rules during extensive nationwide inspections ordered by Beijing beginning in 2016.

However, while hundreds of officials were given official reprimands, only a handful were actually fired or prosecuted.