Environmental progress made, but tough road remains ahead

China experienced consistent improvement in the quality of its environment last year, but it is confronted with markedly more difficulties in making further progress, said Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment.

Following continuous decreases for almost 10 consecutive years, the concentration of PM2.5 particulate matter in China declined to below 30 micrograms per cubic meter last year, he reported to an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Monday.

The average PM2.5 density in major cities across the country stood at 29 mcg/cubic m last year, down 3.3 percent year-on-year, he said.

The proportion of days with heavy air pollution dropped to 0.9 percent, compared with 1.3 percent in 2021. "It's the first time that the proportion decreased to below 1 percent," he said.

The achievement was made thanks to a series of measures from various government bodies, according to the minister.

In a move to help local governments improve air quality, the ministry dispatched 10 batches of officials and experts to support air pollution control work in key regions last year, he said. In total, they helped address over 32,000 environmental problems.

Transformation for ultralow emissions was completed for 210 million metric tons of crude steel production capacity in 2022, following persistent endeavors from the ministry, he added.

Thanks to joint efforts from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport and the National Energy Administration to promote new energy vehicles, he said, the output and sales of such clean energy cars both increased by over 90 percent last year.

Continuous improvement had also been registered in the quality of surface water and marine environment, as well as in the condition of the country's ecosystems, Huang continued.

About 87.9 percent of surface water across the country was found with a quality of Grade I to Grade III in 2022, compared with 84.9 percent in 2021, he said. Following a decrease of 0.5 percentage points, the proportion of surface water with Grade V reached 0.7 percent.

China has a six-tier quality system for surface water, with below Grade V the worst.

Huang stressed, however, that China faces an arduous task to further promote environmental protection, saying, "The country still needs to make prolonged, painstaking efforts to promote the construction of a 'Beautiful China'."

Almost one-third of cities across the country failed to see their air quality reach the national standard in 2022. "Unfavorable meteorological conditions still have great effects on their air quality," he said.

Currently, for example, the national standard for PM2.5 concentration is 35 mcg/cubic m.

On average, cities at the prefecture level and above across the country registered fairly good air quality — considered to be below 100 on a 0-500 air quality index scale — in 86.5 percent of days last year, compared with 87.5 percent in 2021, he said.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province integrated cluster, the Yangtze River Basin and the Fenhe-Weihe Plain saw the proportion of such days drop by 0.5, 3.7 and 5 percentage points, respectively, he said. Heavy air pollution events still occasionally happen in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster and the Fenhe-Weihe Plain in autumn and winter.

"The high-risk situation with frequent environmental emergencies in the country has not yet been fundamentally changed," he said.