The air quality in Beijing saw marked improvement since the city started implementing the five-year clean air action plan in 2013. By November, the PM2.5 density has decreased to 58 micrograms per cubic meter, 35.6 percent less than the same period of 2013.
Beijing has invested over 30 billion yuan (US$4.54 billion) in air pollution control in the past two years. The investment in air pollution control is expected to reach 20 billion yuan this year. Meanwhile, as this year is the last for the five-year clean air action plan, Beijing is making a new five-year plan for the period from 2018 to 2022, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection.
Beijing estimated to spend over 20 billion yuan in air pollution control this year
Yu Jianhua, chief engineer at the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, said on a press conference on Dec. 12, "We have spent several years completing the work which could have costed us 10 years, which is extraordinary."
According to Wang Ruichao, director of the Planning and Finance Department of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, Beijing invested 16.56 billion yuan in air pollution control in 2016. The budget for 2017 is 18.22 billion yuan, but the actual investment is expected to reach about 20 billion yuan.
Among all measures, reducing the usage of coal and the emission of nitrogen has received the most spending. The second is reducing the emission from motor vehicles, including regulating heavy diesel vehicles, developing new energy vehicles, and removing older vehicles models with heavy emission.
Furthermore, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province have worked in cooperation to combat air pollution. Beijing has established partnerships with Langfang and Baoding in Hebei Province and provided funds and technical support to the two cities. Yu said Beijing has offered about 1 billion yuan for the two cities to control air pollution since 2015.
The next five-year clean air action plan under planning
Pollutant emission of all types have seen a decrease of 20 percent in Beijing in the past five years, with the emission of sulfur dioxide seeing a reduction of over 60 percent.
Yu said Beijing is assessing the effectiveness of emergency pollutant reduction measures during heavy air pollution periods and of the five-year clean air action plan from 2013 to 2017.
Yu said the results from the assessments will help to inform the scientific decision-making process for the next five-year clean air action plan from 2018 to 2022, which is currently being formulated. "For example, we have made a lot of achievements in reducing coal in the past five years, so it would no longer be our first task in the future plan," he said.
The number of air monitoring sites increases to 67
Beijing has already developed an air quality trend monitoring network, which was upgraded from the original 35 PM2.5 monitoring sites to 67 ground stations and a high density PM2.5 monitoring network covering main roads in the city's urban and rural areas. The network is equipped with advanced technology, including new-generation high-resolution satellite remote sensors, a laser radar vertical monitoring network, and high precision meteorological observation techniques, to improve the analysis of air quality.
According to Yu, air monitoring sites have functions of objective observation, analysis and evaluation. "In places outside China, the number of air monitoring sites decreases as the air quality becomes better," he said. "More sites don't mean the situation is better."