Tailored strategies from experts help clean up cluster

A national mechanism for tackling air pollution — which features a team of experts dedicated to hammering out tailored measures for cities — has played a remarkable role in significantly improving air quality in the Beijing-TianjinHebei province cluster.

The mechanism gathers scientific research resources on air pollution control from across the country. It has helped the region achieve victories in environmental protection and high-quality development, said Zhang Wenjie, deputy director of the operations management department at the National Joint Research Center for Tackling Key Problems in Air Pollution Control.

The mechanism was initiated following an executive meeting of the State Council, the country’s cabinet, in April 2017, after the region suffered from heavy smog that lingered from the end of 2016 to early the next year.

According to a statement released after the executive meeting, government agencies — including environmental protection authorities — academies and institutions will work together to integrate resources for air pollution control.

The State Council allocated 575 million yuan ($81 million) from the central budget to support the joint efforts.

A joint center was established in September 2017 under the mode of “1 plus X”, with “1” representing the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, an affiliate of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and “X” representing a number of key research institutes, Zhang said.

The center’s work is supported by over 2,900 researchers from 295 institutions, including the China National Environmental Monitoring Center, the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Previously, some local governments might have made impulsive decisions when working on air pollution control, as they lacked support from scientific researchers,” she said, adding the mechanism has significantly helped address the problem.

Following the establishment of the center, a scientific research team was set up for each of the 28 key cities in the Beijing-TianjinHebei region, Zhang said.

Many of the teams were led by academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The teams were stationed in the cities and carried out research, monitoring and surveys. This information was used to develop tailored air pollution control measures, she said.

The teams have also played a role in supporting local governments’ efforts to deal with heavy air pollution. In addition to making suggestions to local governments on air pollution warning levels, they also analyzed the causes of heavy haze and then detailed measures that should be rolled out by different sectors to relieve the situation.

China has a three-tier colorcoded warning system for air pollution, with red the most serious, followed by orange and yellow.

The efforts of the joint center have paid off, Zhang said.

In Beijing, for instance, the average concentration of PM2.5 particulate matter decreased from 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 30 mcg/cubic m in 2022. The number of days with heavy air pollution went down from 58 days to only three days during the period.

While registering a drop of 64 percent in the average concentration of PM2.5, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region saw its GDP grow by 61 percent over that time, Zhang said.

“We managed to achieve a winwin in environmental protection and high-quality development in the region,” she said.