Action plan seeks to snuff out heavy air pollution

BEIJING: China will strive to eliminate heavy air pollution events in 70% of its major cities by 2025, according to a new action plan.

Jointly issued by 15 central government bodies, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday, the plan vowed to reduce the country’s average annual proportion of days with heavy air pollution to less than 1%.

The action plan was drafted against the backdrop of a “grim” air pollution control situation despite “remarkable” improvement to air quality, according to a media release from the ministry.

In 2021, the average density of PM2.5 – particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less – reached 30micrograms per cubic meter, down by 34.8% from 2015.

In all, 87.5% of days last year had fairly good air quality, 6.3% points higher than in 2015, it said.

The Beijing-tianjin-hebei region, however, still suffers from a high frequency of heavy smog.

“Severe air pollution events still happen in over half of the cities across the country,” it said.

The ministry noted increasing ozone density as another prominent problem for air pollution control.

“Ozone pollution has become an increasingly prominent problem, especially in summer,” it said.

“The gas is now the primary pollutant responsible for the excessive concentration of air pollutants in some cities.”

The average density of ozone across the country has increased by 6.4% so far this year, it added.

Even a relatively low concentration of ozone near the ground can lead to lung damage and result in shortness of breath, though the ozone layer, which is about 20km above the Earth, helps shield from harmful ultraviolet radiation.