Air quality, economy are getting better in Beijing

Beijing has demonstrated to the world over the past 20 years that a megacity with a rapidly increasing GDP, vehicle count, population and energy consumption can move forward to cut air pollution effectively.”

Beijing has achieved concrete success in terms of air quality improvement and rapid economic growth, a senior municipal government official said on Tuesday.

The capital’s annual average concentration of fine particulate matter in the air — PM2.5 — fell to 33 micrograms per cubic meter last year, meeting the city’s air quality target outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) ahead of schedule, Yu Jianhua, spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, said at a news conference.

The city’s average concentration of PM2.5 in 2020 was 38 micrograms per cu meter.

“Beijing has demonstrated to the world over the past 20 years that a megacity with a rapidly increasing GDP, vehicle count, population and energy consumption can move forward to cut air pollution effectively,” Yu said. “The PM2.5 reduction over the past few years has surpassed that of developed countries during the same period.”

According to the bureau, the city’s average concentration of PM2.5 dropped by 63 percent last year from what it was in 2013, an average annual reduction of about 8 percent.

Yu said the capital started largescale air pollution control in 1998, with a series of measures carried out since then to support the effort.

“It’s a long-term process with many challenges,” he said. “The authority has been focused on coalburning pollution, industrial and vehicle emissions and dust over the years.”

Science and technology have played a crucial role during the process. Beijing was the first city in China to establish an urban air quality prediction system, which can accurately analyze the source of PM2.5 and its transmissions. The system has provided a scientific foundation for the control and prevention work.

However, Yu said regional emissions of air pollutants still exceed environmental capacity, which means the effort must continue.

“Beijing will maintain all its meascies ures to ensure good air quality for the public in the new year,” he said.

Wu Shijiang, deputy head of the city’s transport commission, said that the city will build a more convenient and green public transportation network to protect the environment and reduce emissions.

By the end of last year, nine new subway lines or extensions were put into operation, which gave people more public transportation options to consider rather than driving.

To cut carbon emissions, Beijing has been encouraging residents to use new energy vehicles over the past few years, offering drivers of such cars many preferential policies. By 2020, the city’s new energy vehicle count had reached 400,000, with annual growth of around 70,000.

According to the government’s plan, the number of new energy vehicles will reach 2 million by 2025, which will further improve the city’s air quality.

He Kebin, professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Environment and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said emission reduction efforts in surrounding regions will also gradually contribute to bettering the capital’s air quality.

“The regional integrated control and prevention measures for air pollution will play an essential role in the future,” he said.

Yu Jianhua, spokesman for Beijing’s ecology and environment bureau