Minister ‘feels guilty’ over air pollution
Print Edition
CHINA’S environment minister says he “felt guilty” and “wanted to reproach himself” over the widespread air pollution that is affecting people’s lives.
Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, made the comments during a press conference in Beijing on China’s efforts to prevent air pollution.
Since the beginning of winter, days of heavy air pollution have been repeated occurrences in many places across the country, covering large areas and staying for long periods.
This had disrupted production activities and adversely affected people’s everyday lives, Chen said.
The public felt anxious about the smog problem, he added.
Detailed analysis showed that emissions from cars had became the primary source of fine particulate matter in major cities, accounting for 31.3 percent of the problem in Beijing, 29.2 percent in Shanghai and 28 percent in Hangzhou, Chen said.
Fine particulate matter is defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency as compounds that have a diameter of less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers. Substances that may form these particles come from power plants, industrial facilities, agricultural practices and motor vehicles, among others.
Chen said the ministry was evaluating emergency plans in 20 cities to deal with serious air pollution, hoping to improve their ability to respond to the problem.
The cities include Beijing, Tianjin and 18 other cities in Hebei and surrounding provinces.
Inspections had found some cities failing to take effective measures following alerts, or that their measures were impracticable, Chen said.
More stringent measures
The ministry will enhance supervision on whether local governments have put their precautionary plans into practice, he said.
Chen vowed to take concrete steps and employ more stringent and effective measures to deal with outstanding environmental problems and improve environmental quality.
China has been cleaning its environment and will continue to improve the response of local governments to pollution, Chen said.
The country has made improvements to the environment despite strong headwinds, such as an economic structure burdened by heavy industry, an energy mix reliant on fossil fuels, and environmentally unfriendly lifestyles, he said.
Last Tuesday, China’s national observatory issued a red alert for fog in a number of northern and eastern regions, the first national red alert for fog. Meanwhile, north China has been under high-level smog alerts since late December.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and neighboring provinces, the areas hit hardest by smog, are major coal consumers and home to a large share of China’s steel, coke and cement production facilities as well as vehicles.
“The root cause of the region’s smog problems, from a long-term perspective, is the unclean industrial and energy mix, which requires big changes,” Chen said.
Monitoring results in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region show that the government’s efforts have paid off in the past few years as the average concentration of PM2.5 fell by about 30 percent in 2016 compared to 2013, he said. However, there seems to be little improvement in winter air quality.
Unfavorable weather conditions and inefficient heating systems had also contributed to the lingering smog, Chen said.
To address the problems in winter, China will phase out unclean and inefficient coal-fired boilers, encourage off-peak industrial production and enhance scrutiny and punishment for violations of the rules, he said.
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