China.org.cn | August 16, 2024
Xie Yingjun:
The floor is now open for questions. Please identify the news agency that you work for before raising questions.
Beijing Youth Daily:
I have two questions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has formulated and implemented ten measures for controlling air pollution as stipulated in the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and the Three-Year Action Plan for Keeping Our Skies Blue. What experiences and insights on air pollution management can be gained from the implementation of these projects? In addition, compared with previous measures, how does the new action plan differ in terms of the current situation and pollution-management approach? In the focus and measures of the new plan, what are the changes as well as its distinctive features and innovations? Thank you.
Liu Bingjiang:
Thank you for your questions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have successively introduced the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and the Three-Year Action Plan for Keeping Our Skies Blue. These measures have indeed significantly improved the air quality, bringing tangible benefits to the people. Reflecting on our achievements of the past eight years, we have made structural adjustment in three sectors: industry, energy and transportation. We have also seized major opportunities in four aspects and have implemented five key strategies: reducing coal consumption, shutting down outdated production facilities, regulating vehicle emissions, managing pollution and controlling dust. The four major opportunities are particularly crucial.
The first opportunity relates to the twofold increase of China's annual natural gas consumption. The figure, which hit nearly 170 billion cubic meters in 2013, doubled by 2020. The massive amount of natural gas consumption presents a huge opportunity for improving air quality. Therefore, in collaboration with related government bodies, we have made adjustment in policies regarding natural gas use, with additional amounts of natural gas being allocated mainly for residential consumption in urban area, and to replace the use of coal. This measure is crucial. Over the past eight years from 2013 to 2020, we have concentrated resources and efforts on managing coal consumption, particularly targeting non-centralized and inefficient coal burning operations, such as coal-fired furnaces and industrial kilns, reducing their number by over 400,000 nationwide. Regarding non-centralized coal burning operations in rural areas, we have worked to replace them with natural gas and electricity, benefiting 25 million rural households and freeing them from smoke and pollution associated with coal use. During this period, coal consumption has been reduced by nearly 500 million metric tons, and carbon dioxide emissions have been cut by 1 billion metric tons. This summarizes our first opportunity.
The second opportunity relates to the national initiative on the de-escalation of overcapacity in the steel and coal industries. Specifically, the CPC Central Committee proposed supply-side structural reforms, and the State Council set targets to reduce steel production capacity by 150 million metric tons and coal production capacity by 500 million metric tons within three years. After eight years of implementation, steel production capacity nationwide has been reduced by 250 million metric tons, and coal production capacity has decreased by 1 billion metric tons. At the same time, nearly 140 million metric tons of substandard steel products have been eliminated, along with 400 million metric tons of outdated cement production capacity. Besides this, in the areas surrounding Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, 62,000 small, poorly-managed and heavily-polluting enterprises have been shut down or overhauled. Regarding Yangtze River conservation, more than 10,000 chemical industrial businesses in cities along the river have been relocated or upgraded to higher environmental standards. Over a thousand businesses have also been relocated as part of the initiative to relieve Beijing of functions nonessential to its role as the capital. These two measures have significantly contributed to reducing emissions related to air pollution.
The third opportunity relates to advancements in science and technology for air pollution management. Domestic scientists and researchers have independently developed large-scale and high-quality facilities to curb air pollution, which significantly enhanced the country's capacity in this field. For example, emissions from all coal-fired power plants in China now meet the same standards as those for natural gas. Initiatives have also been launched to upgrade steel enterprises, enabling them to achieve production with ultra-low emissions. In the meantime, our scientists and researchers have developed a world-class air quality forecast model, allowing us to monitor the progression of every polluting event. This also makes our pollution control efforts more scientific and targeted, enabling us to address long-distance and multi-regional air pollution. Moreover, scientists and researchers in China have independently developed a wide range of monitoring equipment, including "super stations," mobile monitoring vehicles as well as monitoring stations that measure the six key air quality pollutants. These stations have been deployed across both urban and rural areas nationwide, allowing us to accurately track the occurrence, development and dissipation of each polluting event. With the help of these stations, we can more effectively address consistent pollution issues to a certain extent, such as those caused by slash-and-burn actions in the spring, barbecues in the summer, straw burning in the autumn, non-centralized coal burning in the winter and solid waste burning year round.
The fourth opportunity relates to the establishment of a central environmental inspection mechanism. This mechanism has effectively translated policy into action. As a result, local government has truly taken full responsibility for improving air quality, and a closed-loop management system has been developed for the introduction, execution and enforcement of every measure. Over the past eight years from 2013 to 2020, every air quality management measure has been put into action with unprecedented rigor. To sum up, our experience in this field includes structural adjustments in three sectors, the utilization of four key opportunities and the implementation of five essential strategies: reducing coal consumption, shutting down outdated production facilities, regulating vehicle emissions, managing pollution and controlling dust. Each aspect of our work has its own distinctive features.
China is now the country with the fastest improvement in air quality in the world. The coal-derived pollution in our country has been basically resolved, but the turning point of quantitative-to-qualitative improvement in air quality has not yet arrived. This is characterized by the frequent occurrence of heavy pollution. In terms of the three major structures you are all familiar with, the industrial structure is biased toward heavy chemicals, the energy structure is biased toward coal and the transportation structure is biased toward roads, which have not been fundamentally improved.
The control of sulfur dioxide has been relatively thorough and successful, but the control of nitrogen oxides and VOCs is still ongoing. Current meteorological issues in particular, such as dust storms in spring, high temperatures in summer and El Nino in winter, have brought great uncertainties to the improvement of air quality. Facing these new tasks and new problems, and based on the summary of the past 10 years of air pollution control work, the recently introduced action plan continues the effective experiences and practices of the "Ten Measures for Air " and the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle, mainly focusing on the five major paths of reducing coal, eliminating outdated capacity, controlling vehicles, preventing pollution and suppressing dust storms, which continue to be reflected in different chapters of the document.
First, we must highlight the priorities of the work and adhere to the improvement of PM2.5 as the main line. Currently, PM2.5 is still the main issue in terms of air pollution in our country, and we must clarify the reduction target for PM2.5.
Second, we must adhere to systematic pollution control and vigorously promote the adjustment of industrial, energy and transportation structures. In particular, we can see that the low-carbon green transformation in the transportation sector has the most quantitative indicators, which is a major highlight of this document, showcasing the coordinated emission reduction of multiple pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and VOCs.
Third, we must strengthen coordinated prevention and control, which has been a relatively successful experience in air quality governance in recent years. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas have expanded from "2+26" cities to "2+36" cities. The Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have basically achieved coordination on addressing air pollution in the eastern region as a whole. Thank you.