In effort to curb China’s pollution, Beijing aims to cut PM2.5 by 4 per cent in key cities over winter
- Environment ministry aims to cut the number of smoggy days using ‘more sophisticated measures’ than merely closing factories across the board
- Climate official says China faces difficult tasks of developing the economy, improving people’s livelihoods and maintaining energy security
China’s 2021-22 winter campaign against pollution would focus on as many as 64 cities throughout the industrialised, smog-prone north, the ministry said in September.
Wu Xianfeng, an official with the ministry’s Atmospheric Environment Department, told a briefing that “more sophisticated measures” would be used to curb smog instead of blanket closures of factories.
China’s air quality has improved steadily since it declared war on pollution in 2014 in response to growing public alarm about the hazardous industrial emissions that regularly drifted across northern cities.
In the first three quarters of this year, PM2.5 in 339 cities nationwide fell 6.7 per cent on the year to 28 micrograms per cubic metre. China aims to keep the national average at 34.5 micrograms this year, in line with its “interim” air quality standard of 35 micrograms.