Cabinet approves stricter standards for air quality
Source: Xinhua |
March 1, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE State Council, China's Cabinet, yesterday passed revised air quality standards which include an index for PM2.5, or fine particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter.
The new standards include indices for the concentration of PM2.5 and ozone (O3) over a period of eight hours, according to a statement issued after a meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.
This year, monitoring of PM2.5 and O3 will be conducted in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions - east China's Yangtze River Delta, south China's Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north, the statement said.
Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said previously it would release figures on the amount of PM2.5 particles in the air from June 1.
Next year, the monitoring will be extended to 113 model cities on the state environmental protection list, and to all cities at prefecture level or above in 2015, according to the statement.
Air quality across China has remained stable over the past five years and some cities have seen improvements, with the concentration of sulfur dioxide and PM10 particles reducing, the statement said. However, pollutant emissions are still large and air pollution in some regions is serious, it said.
"We need firmer resolution and more effective measures, under higher standards, to remedy air pollution and steadily improve air quality," the statement said.
In the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, China will promote clean energy, relocate high-polluting industrial projects out of populous urban areas and introduce eco-friendly technologies into these projects, it said.
In these key areas, the country will raise emission standards and stop building thermal power plants, and steel and cement factories.
The government will continue national campaigns to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from factories.
The State Council also pledged to improve the quality of gasoline and raise the auto exhausts emissions standard. By 2015, vehicles registered before 2005 failing to meet the standard must not be on public roads.
The new standards include indices for the concentration of PM2.5 and ozone (O3) over a period of eight hours, according to a statement issued after a meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.
This year, monitoring of PM2.5 and O3 will be conducted in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions - east China's Yangtze River Delta, south China's Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north, the statement said.
Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said previously it would release figures on the amount of PM2.5 particles in the air from June 1.
Next year, the monitoring will be extended to 113 model cities on the state environmental protection list, and to all cities at prefecture level or above in 2015, according to the statement.
Air quality across China has remained stable over the past five years and some cities have seen improvements, with the concentration of sulfur dioxide and PM10 particles reducing, the statement said. However, pollutant emissions are still large and air pollution in some regions is serious, it said.
"We need firmer resolution and more effective measures, under higher standards, to remedy air pollution and steadily improve air quality," the statement said.
In the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, China will promote clean energy, relocate high-polluting industrial projects out of populous urban areas and introduce eco-friendly technologies into these projects, it said.
In these key areas, the country will raise emission standards and stop building thermal power plants, and steel and cement factories.
The government will continue national campaigns to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from factories.
The State Council also pledged to improve the quality of gasoline and raise the auto exhausts emissions standard. By 2015, vehicles registered before 2005 failing to meet the standard must not be on public roads.
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