Air pollution declines, but test remains

Reducing level of ozone key element to reaching national environmental goals

Editor's note: As China is set to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects at the end of this year, President Xi Jinping has noted that there are areas of weakness in realizing this goal. China Daily is publishing a series of stories to look at the country's efforts to tackle these weaknesses with targeted measures.

The amount of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 in the air has become a well-known gauge of air pollution in China in the past decade, making it a top concern for people on hazy days.

Now there is also more awareness of an invisible air pollutant that is also bad for their health－ozone.

With PM2.5 concentrations continuing to decline, ozone has been the only one of six major air pollutants to see densities increase last year. Reducing levels of the gas is crucial if China is to realize all of its air pollution control targets, a key part of the country's goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the end of the year.

In an article by President Xi Jinping on strengthening areas of weakness in building a moderately prosperous society that was published in Qiushi Journal on June 1, Xi emphasized environmental protection as one of the areas that needed attention to fix weak links.

"The country faces arduous air pollution control tasks in key regions, which are frequented by heavy air pollution in fall and winter. The task is also heavy for ecological conservation and remediation in the Yangtze River Basin," he wrote. There also are problems with black, malodorous bodies of water in cities and dirty and disorderly environments in rural areas, he added.

China has made marked progress on air pollution control, said Liu Bingjiang, head of air quality management at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and has already hit some year-end targets, but officials and experts say it still has challenges in fulfilling all of its air pollution control targets, with ozone a particularly arduous challenge.