Feng Hao's article of 6th July in China Dialogue , an independent organization focussing on China's ecological challenges, outlines the import of China's latest 2018- 2020 Air Pollution Action Plan and catalogues some of the achievements and shortfalls of the antecedent Action Plan.
The latter Plan only set PM2.5 targets for the three big city clusters of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Pearl and Yangtze Deltas.
"In Beijing this meant reducing PM2.5 levels from 89.5µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre) down to 60. To do so, Beijing closed its coal-fired power stations, and banned people in surrounding areas from burning coal for heat. These measures were costly and controversial, but they enabled the city to achieve an annual average PM2.5 level of 58µg/m³ – a drop of 35%.
..... In the end, China’s three biggest city clusters (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and the Pearl and Yangtze deltas) all beat their targets.
But even so, no Chinese city yet reaches the World Health Organization’s recommended annual average PM2.5 level of 10µg/m³. And as of the end of 2017, only 107 of China’s 338 cities of prefectural level or higher had reached the WHO’s interim standard of 35µg/m³."
Without setting new targets, the new Action Plan puts pressure on laggard cities and regions. Emphasis is placed on the rust-belt Fen-Wei Plains, which include Xi’an and parts of Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi provinces. Also targeted is the worsening problem of ozone pollution, adding new reduction targets by 2020 of 10% for VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and 15% for nitrogen oxides emissions (on a 2015 baseline).
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