China continues to boost pollution management

In the face of the severe and complex situation of ecological and environmental protection, China continues to safeguard its achievements in air quality management. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated on Tuesday that the national rate of good air quality days reached 85.5 percent in 2023.

The rate of good air quality days in 2023 was 85.5 percent. It was 86.8 percent after excluding days with abnormally high dust concentrations, surpassing the annual target by 0.6 percentage points and increasing by 3.5 percentage points compared to 2019, said Pei Xiaofei, the new director of the Department of Communications and Education and spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, at a monthly press conference.

"Over the past year, facing the severe and complex situation of ecological and environmental protection, the national ecological and environmental system has coordinated efforts to promote high-quality economic development and high-level protection of the ecological environment, vigorously advancing the construction of a beautiful China, and achieving new results in ecological and environmental governance," he introduced.

In terms of atmospheric environmental quality, the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at the prefectural level and above in China was 30 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023, better than the annual target (32.9 micrograms per cubic meter) by about 3.0 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 16.7 percent compared to 2019. The proportion of heavily polluted days nationwide was 1.6 percent, which adjusted to 1.1 percent after excluding days with abnormal dust pollution, meeting the annual target, Pei said.

Regarding water environmental quality, in 2023, the proportion of good quality (Class I-III) sections of national surface water was 89.4 percent, an increase of 1.5 percentage points year-on-year, while the proportion of poor quality (Class V) sections remained steady at 0.7 percent. In terms of soil environmental quality, the safe utilization of polluted arable land and key construction land was effectively guaranteed nationwide in 2023.

Pei said that to do a good job in the prevention and control of air pollution during the autumn and winter seasons and to effectively respond to heavy pollution weather, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment focused on key areas, highlighting "response to heavy pollution weather and supervision of standard emissions" as two main tasks, and coordinated the advancement of "online and offline" efforts.

Since the autumn and winter of 2023, the Ministry has mobilized more than 2,400 key personnel in the national ecological and environmental system and over 9,700 local law enforcement personnel, conducting 8 rounds of on-site and remote supervision and assistance for air pollution, identifying over 16,000 problem enterprises, and addressing over 32,000 environmental issues related to air.

Tuesday's press conference marked Pei's first appearance, replacing the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's veteran spokesperson Liu Youbin, who retired in November last year.

According to media reports, Pei has long worked in the environmental protection system and is an expert official. He has also worked in the environmental protection department in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in previous years.