On October 27, at the "2021 China Blue Sky Observation Forum", the Asian Clean Air Center released its latest report, "Air China 2021: China's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Process" (hereinafter referred to as the report). The report shows that China's overall air quality has achieved seven consecutive increases, and "reaching the standard" has become the main theme, which has achieved outstanding results in developing countries in Asia.
The report pointed out that China's carbon peak carbon neutrality roadmap will bring benefits to the continuous improvement of air quality, and suggests that China will coordinate the goals and paths of air and climate-related governance during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, launch the revision of the "Ambient Air Quality Standards", continue to deepen the adjustment of energy, transportation and industrial structures, and help achieve clean air and the "double carbon target".
"Reaching the standard" has become the main theme of China's urban air
Since 2015, the Asian Clean Air Center has released a series of reports, "Atmosphere China: China's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Process". The series of reports was guided and supported by He Kebin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the Institute of Carbon Neutrality of Tsinghua University, and Zhang Shiqiu, professor of Peking University.
The report released this time shows that since 2013, China's air quality has improved significantly for seven consecutive years, and the annual evaluation concentrations of six pollutants in the country have reached the overall standard in 2020, and the number of cities with air quality standards has also increased to 202. Among them, in 2020, the annual average concentration of PM2.5 in the country dropped to 33 μg/m3, entering the Chinese national standard standard line for the first time, and ozone with a rising trend in recent years achieved a year-on-year decline in annual evaluation concentration for the first time in 2020.
Fu Lu, director of the Asia Clean Air Center China, said that China's air quality continues to improve, thanks to the "combination fist" of attaching importance to structural adjustment, terminal governance and scientific support. In 2020, the proportion of coal consumption in primary energy consumption fell to 56.8%, the proportion of coal-fired power installed capacity fell below 50% for the first time, and the total installed capacity of coal-fired power ultra-low emissions reached 88%.
"China is the most populous country in the world, and more 'blue skies' mean more protection for public health." Fu Lu said, "The implementation of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense War has promoted the optimization of China's energy, industry and transportation structure, and has promoted the over-completion of the carbon emission reduction targets in the 13th Five-Year Plan." ”
The report also released the "2021 Blue Sky Top 100 Cities List". The Clean Air Centre Asia has released the list for the third consecutive year. Different from the traditional ranking of air quality cities, the "Blue Sky Top 100 Cities List" evaluates the improvement of the city's three-year sliding average air quality and policy measures, and receives "effectiveness points" and "effort points" respectively, and the total gets a "comprehensive score", aiming to encourage cities to increase their efforts to continuously improve air quality.
Among the 168 key cities included in the score, Hefei won the crown of comprehensive score ranking. Among the top 20 cities with comprehensive ratings, Guangdong Province accounted for 7 seats and Zhejiang Province accounted for 6 seats. Compared with the previous year's list, the cities in Anhui Province have made significant progress.
The list shows that the top cities in the effort are all first-tier or new first-tier cities, in addition to the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as well as Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, etc., which shows that the air governance of economically developed cities is greater.
In the performance score ranking, Linfen and Jincheng have got rid of the previous bottom situation due to the great improvement of air quality. The cities lagging behind in the results score are mainly concentrated in Henan Province, and Hebi is at the bottom of the results score and comprehensive score ranking.
"Judging from the scores of the top cities, the impact of 'effort' on the 'blue value' of cities is particularly important." Fu Lu said, "Most of the top cities have established leading scientific decision-making bases and assessment methods, and at the same time, these cities have taken active emission reduction measures in energy, industry, motor vehicles and other aspects." ”
Advance clean air and carbon neutrality goals in synergy
On October 24, 2021, the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on The Complete, Accurate and Comprehensive Implementation of the New Development Concept to Do a Good Job in Carbon Neutrality (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") was released. This is another blockbuster declaration after China announced to the world in 2020 that it will achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Fu Lu said that the "Opinions" clarified The roadmap for China's carbon peak carbon neutrality will inject new momentum into Chinese cities to continue to improve air quality. But there are still some key issues to be addressed to achieve clean air and carbon neutrality.
He Kebin said that air pollution and climate change have the same root, pollution reduction and carbon reduction can be synergistic, since 2013, air pollution control measures have allowed the public to harvest more blue skies, but also brought considerable carbon reduction effects.
The report proposes that the 14th Five-Year Plan is a critical period for guiding medium- and long-term collaborative planning. At present, China has proposed the "3060 double carbon target", how to coordinate the goal and path of carbon neutrality with clean air, which needs to be considered as a whole.
Fu Lu believes that more and more cities are entering the ranks of meeting the standards, indicating that the current air quality standards are difficult to serve as a benchmark for leading cities to further improve air quality.
Recently, the World Health Organization has strictly defined health guidelines for a number of pollutants in an updated version of its Global Air Quality Guidelines. The report recommends that China should consider revising China's national standards in due course during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, tightening the limits of pollutants including PM2.5 and ozone, and studying the addition of long-term target values for ozone.
Zhu Tong, dean of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Peking University, said that there is a "double synergy" between air pollution and climate change in terms of source control and health benefits, and under the background of "double carbon target", China should strengthen localized scientific research representing the characteristics of Chinese groups to provide a strong scientific basis for promoting the revision of China's air quality standards.
Comprehensively strengthen structural adjustment
He Kebin stressed that to achieve the goal of clean air and carbon neutrality, the core is the adjustment of energy structure and the transformation of industrial structure.
The report shows that China's structural adjustment has a long way to go, and it is necessary to coordinate and coordinate with multiple departments. At present, China's total coal consumption is still in a high platform period, and the control of new coal power approvals is not strict; the work of de-capacity has progressed rapidly, but the output of steel, cement and other industries is still growing; and the progress of transportation structure adjustment in the past three years has been lower than expected.
It is reported that China has proposed to accelerate the construction of a carbon peak carbon neutrality "1 + N" policy system, led by the central government, to promote the implementation plan and guarantee plan for carbon peaking in different fields and industries.
Fu Lu suggested that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, a multi-sectoral and multi-industry consensus on coordinated air and climate governance should be established as soon as possible, forming a synergy between medium- and long-term plans, and structural adjustment should adopt a strategy of attaching equal importance to total quantity control and flexible measures. Cities with the capacity should formulate a combination of measures that can promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction through various policy analysis means, including cost-benefit analysis, and optimize the path of emission reduction.
Zhu Tong said that health benefits should become an important consideration in the choice of coordinated policy paths, and China needs to optimize the goals and paths of coordinated governance of climate change and air pollution driven by health benefits.
Reporter Zheng Jinwu
Source: China Science Daily