How Beijing turns its sky blue

Scientific knowledge application, curbs on vehicle use and promotion of clean energy have helped

Years of efforts have paid off. Beijing now breathes in better quality air.

Following President Xi Jinping's ecological civilization concept, the capital city has defended the blue sky with all its strength.

By the end of 2018, the annual average concentration of the three major pollutants - PM10, SO2 and NO2 - had decreased by 59 percent, 95 percent and 43 percent, respectively, compared to 1998, even as the population, local GDP and the number of vehicles kept growing over the years.

In 2018, Beijing's annual average concentration of PM2.5 dropped by 43 percent, compared to 2013, and by another 13 percent in the first half of 2019, registering the best level in history.

UN Environment released a report on Beijing's 20 years' air pollution control process in March of this year, indicated that "no other city on the planet has realized that rapid air pollution reduction".

Reviewing the air pollution control track, Beijing has made use of scientific support, combined with advanced experience at home and abroad, and local realities.

First, Beijing issued the Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Ecological Environmental Protection and Resolutely Fighting the Battle against Pollution in Beijing, which formulates a division of responsibilities and strengthens assessment and inspection.

Since 2013, support implemented A Five-year Clean Air Action Plan (2013-17), Beijing's Three-year Plan on Defending the Blue Sky, and various annual action plans, while focusing on dealing with governance, management, emergency response and regional coordination. Beijing's decision to apply legal, economic, scientific, and administrative means is also a comprehensive attempt to promote the coordinated management of multiple pollutants.

Second, Beijing targets the focal point and tackles the problem precisely. Air pollution is fallout of development mode, economic structure and consumption pattern. The solution is to focus on major pollution sources and reduce emission with determination.

In recent years, the municipal government has taken the help of scientific support to tackle pollution from coal combustion, vehicles, industry and dust, based on the results of PM2.5 source appointment results.

For example, the municipal government has vigorously reduced coal combustion. To optimize the city's energy structure, the government has made efforts to replace coal with clean energy in the fields of electricity, industry and heating. At the same time, it has introduced subsidy and price reduction incentives to ensure that residents and enterprises can afford transition from coal to clean energy.

At present, the total annual consumption of coal in Beijing is within 3 million metric tons, which is 90 percent lower than the peak amount. The plain area has basically achieved "no coal consumption". Beijing has eliminated pollution caused by burning coal in general.

The municipal government also strictly controls vehicle emission pollution by integrated measures covering stringent emission standards, fuel quality standard, and on-road restriction, aiming to reduce pollution while also finding a solution to the traffic congestion problem. The government has planned for more extended metro and bus networks to reduce intense use of private cars.

The city has always taken the lead in the country to implement the most stringent standards for vehicle emission and oil quality in order to alleviate the pollution from emission.

It delineates the low-emission areas for motor vehicles. Up to now, about 2.2 million old motor vehicles have been eliminated and nearly 288,000 new energy vehicles have been put into use. Pollution control measures have been extended to off-road machineries. Law enforcement is strengthened to guarantee regulations and standards are respected.

The municipal government also makes efforts to reduce emission and pollution from industrial development. To better play out the function of a capital city, Beijing came out with a new catalog of restricted polluting industries, after which it removed more than 3,000 polluting companies and regulated 11,000 companies that violating environmental regulation.

The industries are asked to apply cleaner production and environment-friendly technical reforms, all of the city's industrial pollution sources have adopted technical renovation for desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal and volatile organic compound control.

Integrated measures are taken to control dust raising in construction activities. Efforts are also made to increase the green coverage across the city territory to enhance the ecosystem capacity.

Tackling air pollution is a complex issue. It needs to be accompanied by a sound governance system and continuously improved capabilities.

In recent years, Beijing has formulated the most comprehensive, systematic and strict air pollution control regulations. It implements the stringent Beijing Air Pollution Prevention and Control Ordinance and formulates over 40 local emission standards.

It offers economic support for air quality improvement and has introduced more than 40 financially supported incentive policies, including subsidies for old vehicle elimination.

It establishes a differentiated gas and electricity price mechanism, offering favorable electricity prices to residents who accept transition from coal to electricity heating.

It levies the national highest limit of environmental tax, which forces the pollutant discharge units to actively control emission reduction.

With the help of Beijing's scientific and technological resources, the municipal government carries out scientific research and development to prevent and control air pollution. It has carried out two rounds of PM2.5 source appointment studies, and has built an integrated air quality monitoring network, which covers satellite, in the air and ground monitoring stations, to carry out real-time monitoring of coarse and fine particles up to town level.

Any city in the region cannot isolate itself from the battle against air pollution. In recent years, Beijing has precipitated in joint prevention efforts with Tianjin and Hebei to promote synergized reduction of regional air pollutants and achieve simultaneous improvement of air quality.

Even encouraging improvement has been realized, air quality in Beijing still fails to meet national air quality standards, and there is big gap with WHO guideline. There is a long way to go for Beijing in fighting air pollution. Further plans are under development for achieving the air quality standards.

The author is director of Beijing Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily Global 09/23/2019 page13)