BEIJING: Despite facing challenges in environmental protection amid efforts to boost its economic recovery, China has made consistent progress over the past year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has said.
In 2024, the average density of PM2.5 particulate matter in the country’s 339 major cities was 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter, down 2.7 percent year-on-year, the ministry said in a statement issued after its annual work conference that was held recently .
This means the concentration of the air pollutants that can penetrate deeply into the lungs has remained below China’s interim national standard of 35 mcg/cubic meter for five straight years, it said.
The ministry also revealed that the proportion of days with “fairly good” air quality — considered to be below 100 on the 0-500 air quality index scale — in the country reached 87.2 percent last year, up 1.7 percentage points from the previous year.
The accomplishment was attributed to a series of initiatives implemented by the ministry to advance efforts to ensure blue skies.
Roughly 2 million rural households in northern China said farewell to coal as a heating source last year, the statement said. Approximately 80 percent of the nation’s crude steel production capacity has undergone either comprehensive ultra-low emission transformations or targeted upgrades in key segments of their production processes. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
