China’s smog fight goes on regardless of economic pressures
- Beijing takes a more nuanced approach this year but no relaxation of pollution-cutting measures
- Poor weather expected to make northern regions more vulnerable to air pollution this winter
A slowing economy will not deter China from its battle against toxic air pollution, although the fight was becoming increasingly difficult, an environment ministry official told reporters on Wednesday.
China has been shutting vast swathes of its industrial capacity, curbing traffic and cutting coal use in pollution-prone regions of the north, but the Ministry of Ecology and Environment warned last week that an economic slowdown was making the campaign against smog more challenging.
Last winter, factories complained their businesses were hurt after indiscriminate production cuts forced them to close, whether they had installed pollution controls.
With the July to September economic growth at its slowest quarterly rate since 2009, Beijing is adopting a more nuanced approach this year.
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But while the government has set more pragmatic targets based on actual economic conditions, poor weather is expected to make pollution-prone northern regions even more vulnerable to smog this winter, and the campaign will be even more strenuous, said Liu Youbin, spokesman for the environment ministry.