3-year cleaner air plan to be implemented

CHINA will begin to implement a three-year action plan for cleaner air later this year, an environmental official said.

The plan aims to markedly improve air quality and people’s satisfaction with it, Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of ecology and environment, said at a press briefing yesterday.

By 2020, emissions of sulfur dioxide and ammonia oxides should drop at least 15 percent from 2015 levels, while cities with low air quality standards should see their density of PM2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, fall at least 18 percent.

Cities at prefecture level and above should see the number of good air days reach 80 percent annually and the percentage of heavily polluted days decrease by 25 percent or more from 2015 levels.

To achieve the goals, authorities will optimize the industrial structure, promote clean energy, develop green transport and strengthen regional coordination, Zhao said.

Efforts will be focused on areas including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surroundings, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenhe and Weihe river plains. Economic, legal, technological and administrative means will be adopted.

China accomplished all the major tasks of its fiveyear clean air action plan in 2017, but challenges remain. A large number of cities still need to further improve air quality.