China fulfills green goals in 2021: official

BEIJING - China last year delivered its environmental targets with reduced pollution and continued improvement in water and air quality, an official said Monday.

Liu Youbin, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told a press conference that the country fulfilled all the eight binding targets covering emissions of CO2 and surface water quality.

The country's progress in cutting CO2 emissions per unit of GDP met the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) requirements. The emission reduction of four major pollutants, including oxynitride, also reached annual goals.

The share of days with good air quality in 2021 rose to 87.5 percent, up 0.5 percentage points from a year ago. The PM2.5 density went down 9.1 percent, year-on-year, to 30 micrograms per cubic meter.

Liu, in particular, stressed air quality improvement in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas.

Beijing's air quality for the first time met all standards last year, he said. He added that the city's PM2.5 density declined from 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 33 micrograms in 2021, and its days of significant air pollution came down from 58 to eight.

The country also reported better surface water quality last year. The proportion of lakes and rivers graded Class I to III reached 84.9 percent, pointing to a continuously improving trend in the ecological environment. Surface water quality in China is divided into five classes, Class I being the highest quality.

The Yangtze River, China's longest river, saw the water quality of its primary stream reach Class II for the second straight year in 2021.