China News Service, Beijing, February 24 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) Li Tianwei, Director of the Atmospheric Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, told reporters on the 24th that the final battle of the "14th Five-Year Plan" of the battle to defend the blue sky has begun.
The overall improvement of the national environmental air in 2024. The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at the prefecture level and above across the country was 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7%; the proportion of excellent days was 87.2%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points year-on-year. The improvement in air quality is large and the range is wide, and the average PM2.5 concentration in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has decreased by 3.4% year-on-year.
Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, the proportion of heavy pollution days in the country has steadily decreased, reaching 0.9% in 2024, exceeding the annual target. Beijing has only two days of heavy pollution, which is the least in previous years. Li Tianwei said that, however, the goal of basically eliminating heavy pollution weather in the "14th Five-Year Plan" is to complete the goal of basically eliminating heavy pollution weather in the "14th Five-Year Plan", it is necessary to turn on the "fighting the gopher" mode throughout the process.
At present, China's air pollution control has entered deep water areas, and it is difficult to coordinate the emission reduction of major air pollutants, and problems such as excessive emissions, abnormal operation of environmental protection management facilities and inefficient failure are prominent. In addition, the world is in the cycle of El Niño to La Niña. The meteorological conditions in autumn and winter are generally poor, extreme weather and climate events occur frequently, and long-term, large-scale heavy pollution weather processes will occur from time to time, and the "New Year's Eve haze" phenomenon may still reappear.
Li Tianwei admitted that, therefore, there are still considerable difficulties and challenges to achieve the goal of "the proportion of severe and above pollution days nationwide in 2025 will be controlled within 1% by 2025."
If objective conditions are not favorable, people should work harder. Regarding this year's key tasks, Li Tianwei said that, first, vigorously promote pollution control and emission reduction. Guide local governments to accelerate the implementation of the withdrawal of backward production capacity, ultra-low emission transformation, clean heating, mobile source prevention and control in key industries, continue to deepen performance grading in key industries, strengthen non-point source pollution control, and fundamentally reduce pollutant emissions.
The second is to respond to heavy pollution weather scientifically and accurately. Continuously improve forecasting and forecasting capabilities, respond accurately, scientifically and in accordance with the law to long-term and large-scale heavy pollution weather, truly achieve "peak reduction and speed reduction" of pollution; improve the emergency emission reduction list, and realize that all air-related enterprises should be included and dynamically updated to prevent "extracorporeal circulation"; ensure that all emergency emission reduction should be reduced and precisely implemented, and eliminate "digital emission reduction".
The third is to coordinate the control of PM2.5 and ozone pollution, and guide key cities to implement coordinated emission reduction around the common precursors of these two, namely nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, to ensure the completion of the "14th Five-Year Plan" goals and tasks.
"The grand plan for defending the blue sky has been drawn up long ago. The key is how well it is done. The achievement depends on 'determination + action'." Li Tianwei said.
2025 is the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and a critical year for systematic planning of the "15th Five-Year Plan". The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will adhere to the principle of precise, scientific and legal pollution control, and achieve the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality. Li Tianwei said that specifically, it is necessary to highlight environmental air quality management, focus on pollution control and emission reduction, accelerate the promotion of key tasks such as clean heating, ultra-low emission transformation, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pollution control, and mobile source prevention and control, and comprehensively promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the three major structures of industry, energy and transportation.
At the same time, highlight pollution response. Continue to deepen the staged differentiated control of long-term and large-scale heavy pollution response in autumn and winter, further improve the forecasting and forecasting capabilities, strengthen regional joint prevention and control and supervision and assistance, and effectively reduce the impact of heavy pollution weather.
This year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will launch the compilation of the "Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality (2026-2035)". Regarding the "15th Five-Year Plan" air pollution prevention and control work and the goals and tasks of improving air quality, Li Tianwei revealed that "it is still in the research stage." Overall, in terms of work ideas, anchor the requirements of the construction of "Beautiful China", increase the efforts to coordinate the reduction of carbon, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society, and further reduce the impact of air pollution on human health. (End)
