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Beijing will allocate 30 billion yuan ($4.70 billion) over the next three years for air pollution control in the city's southern area, according to a coordination meeting of air pollution control authorities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas.
Over the past ten months, the capital's average concentration of PM 2.5, a fine particle that poses health hazards, fell to 69.7 microgram per cubic meter, down by 21.8 percent over the same period of last year, said the authorities. The remarkable reduction of PM2.5 is the result of Beijing's accomplishment of air pollution control tasks, including eliminating 313,000 used vehicles during the period. Beijing has eliminated as many as 1.16 million used vehicles in the past three years.
The city has also implemented such policies as promoting popularization of green cars in the city by freeing electric passenger cars from daily license plate restrictions and offering subsidies to new energy vehicles. So far, it has 21,500 electric cars, ranking top among cities across the country, with more than 13,000 battery charging posts.
A reduction of industrial pollution also contributed to the improvement of air conditions. Beijing has moved out or closed 300 polluting enterprises in the areas of printing, furniture, and construction materials in the first ten months of this year, and has dealt similarly with nearly 1,000 enterprises over the past three years.
The central six districts of the capital have finished replacing coal-fired boilers with clean energy and transformed the heating systems of 30,000 bungalow households in the old city. The city also shut down two power stations and reduced its yearly coal consumption to below 13 million tons from a previous 17.6 million tons.
To further improve air quality, the capital has decided to put money in controlling air pollution in its southern part, which is worse than other areas of the city. The pollution in that area is due to industry and other sources such as straw burning, waste incineration, barbecuing, and dust.
The average concentrations of PM2.5 in Beijing's neighboring city of Tianjin and nearby Hebei province also dropped by 20.3 percent and 25.8 percent respectively during the first ten-month period.
With experience, a long-term collaboration system for emergent heavy air pollution control will be worked out, with Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei's Lanfang, Baoding, Cangzhou, and Tangshan involved, said a person in charge of the air pollution control coordination group.
The six cities can then launch unified emission reduction measures to modify air pollution over a large area.
