China.org.cn | August 16, 2024
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With the support of all sectors of society, China's air quality has been significantly improved. It is a key issue whether the general public can continue to give strong support to carry out air pollution prevention and control at the current stage. At present, some people have misunderstandings. They believe air pollution prevention and control may affect the economy or even people's livelihood. What's your view on this? Thank you.
Liu Bingjiang:
Fresh air is the most inclusive benefit to people's wellbeing and most equitable public good. Everyone desires to enjoy fresh air every day. The health and wellbeing of the people is closely related to air pollution. According to results of our scientific research, the implementation of ten measures on controlling air pollution as well as the three-year action plan for keeping our skies blue have significantly improved people's health in China, due to the improvement in air quality. The control of air pollution has fully demonstrated China's people-centered approach toward development. Continuous improvement of air quality means improvements to people's livelihoods. It can be said that, just as you mentioned, the improvement of air quality over the past decade has gained wide support from the people. When formulating ten measures on controlling air pollution in 2013, people were looking forward to improving air quality at an early date and clearing away the smog.
Actually, you raised a question about the relationship between air quality improvement and economic development. Some people say that air quality improvements impact economic development. Data shows that China's GDP has doubled over the past decade, but the concentration of PM2.5 has dropped by 57%. The air quality has improved significantly and with sound GDP growth. Therefore, air pollution control has brought economic, environmental and social benefits.
According to our preliminary statistics, air pollution control has directly and indirectly driven investment of about 4 trillion yuan as well as led to a GDP growth of 5 trillion yuan. That is a large number. Moreover, in order to improve air quality, many new technologies and new products that have been independently developed by China have been widely applied, which has effectively boosted the development of green, energy-saving and environmental protection industries such as environmental protection equipment manufacturing, comprehensive technical services, boiler renovation and new energy vehicles. Furthermore, this has created over 3 million non-agricultural jobs.
Let's take the steel industry as an example. Over the past decade, through easing overcapacity and ultra-low emission retrofitting, China's crude steel production has increased by 25% and the number of enterprises has simultaneously decreased by 29%, with the average size rising by 52%. At present, a total of over 400 million tons of crude steel have completed the ultra-low emission retrofitting. Steel enterprises have taken on an entirely new look. The director general of the World Steel Association has visited many Chinese steel enterprises that have completed the ultra-low emission retrofitting. After his visit, he said that the cleanliness of China's steel enterprises is at a level that no other country can reach, which is very shocking words in the steel industry. You can go and see by yourselves on the spot. At the same time, the ultra-low emission retrofitting has also attracted over 200 billion yuan in investments, which is a key marker of green development. Another example is clean heating. According to our statistics, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province have completed clean heating transition of 15 million rural households. At the beginning of the transition, a large amount of investment was needed to develop the power grid. The natural gas pipeline network was virtually nil and storage capacity was essentially non-existent. Weaknesses in energy infrastructure in rural areas needed to be shored up sooner or later. Addressing air pollution has solved this problem. The upgrading of energy infrastructure has driven more than 200 billion yuan of investment and has yielded good results. The examples I have raised are all vivid illustrations of coordinated advancements in high-quality development and high-standard protection. Air pollution prevention and control indeed does not affect the economy, but rather optimize and promote a green and high-quality development of the economy. Thank you.