China breathes easier as terrible air quality improves

After three decades of breakneck economic growth and little concern for the environmental consequences, China has become notorious for its air pollution problems. But growing public anger over the near-constant smog has pushed the government to make combating it a priority.

The results are starting to pay off: China’s air is getting cleaner.

“It’s not just Beijing or one region,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, who campaigns on air pollution for Greenpeace. “It’s really widespread reductions in [levels of particulate matter and pollutants] across all of eastern and central China.”

Data collected by Greenpeace East Asia from 189 Chinese cities showed levels of PM2.5—small, inhalable particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs—fell an average of 16 percent in the first half of 2015, compared to the same period last year. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels also dropped by more than 40 percent.

Yi Bo, an engineer at Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau’s air management office cited two reasons for the improvement: government efforts to reduce emissions and more favorable weather conditions compared to last year, including more winds from the north.

“People make an effort and the heavens help,” he said, evoking a Chinese idiom.

Air quality in China typically worsens in the winter when coal burning increases and weather patterns add to the smog. The winter of 2013 was so bad the central government banned new coal-fired power plants around Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and ordered cities to cut pollutant levels to 75 percent of 2012 levels by 2017.

China has also dramatically increased investment in non-fossil fuel energy, such as wind and solar power. Greenpeace reported earlier this year that China added more than 50 gigawatts of solar, wind, and hydroelectric power generation capacity to its electrical grid in 2014.

Last year, China began enforcing a new environmental law that imposes much tougher penalties, including unlimited fines against persistent polluters. Chinese premier Li Keqiang pledged the government would crack down, not only on polluters, but on officials who sometimes connive with them, according to The Guardian.

China’s capital, Beijing, is one of its most polluted regions, with the main sources of pollution coming from vehicles, coal-burning, and industry, as well as dust from construction sites. The city government is converting coal-fired boilers to natural gas, raising exhaust emission standards, and getting older cars off the road. It also plans to close or move 300 polluting factories this year.

But it still has a long way to go. Although Beijing’s average PM2.5 levels for the first 10 months of the year—70 micrograms per cubic meter—dropped 20 percent from the same period last year, that’s still double China’s own standard of 35 and seven times higher than the World Health Organization’s guideline of 10.

Engineer Yi Bo said he expects Beijing to meet the government’s 2017 goals. Asked when city residents can expect to breathe clean air, Yi was vague but optimistic: “I can only say that the air we breathe will be better and better.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.