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Zhang Chun, Tang Damin
January 5, 201722 September 2020
Three years after prime Minister Li Keqiang’s “war on pollution,” this winter’s smog is taking a new turn. On the one hand, statistics show that overall air quality in China has improved; on the other hand, the widening gap in air quality between China’s east coast and its inland cities is increasing tensions.
In Chengdu, the city of 14 million more people in central Sichuan Province, unusually poor air is unbearable. Thick fog and smog closed the runways at Shuangliu International Airport for 14 hours in December, prompting morning cancellations that stranded 20,000 passengers.
That month, Chengdu experienced nine days of sustained air pollution, which led the media to report on the growing cry of residents. According to 6th Tone, police faced an artists’ organization at a demonstration against air pollution.
About six hundred kilometers away, in the great western city of Xi’an, the artists’ organization led a cutting-edge demonstration after nearly a week of continuous smog. Putting their creativity into practice, academics at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts put a mask on a stone lion pedestal, turning bad air into an art installation.
Perhaps more than the air pollutants themselves, the citizens of Western cities are exasperated by the weak reaction of local governments. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (also known as Jing-Jin-Ji), being the region most related to smog, proposes strong measures to combat the problem.
Large-scale regional emergency measures to combat air pollutants between Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan and Shandong are already in place. Earlier this year, Shijiazhuang has just stopped commercial production for a month and part to meet air quality standards. The government’s reaction between these eastern cities and the urban centers of western China is striking.
Development and pollution
The differences between smog reaction measures in Beijing and Chengdu are a smart example: pollution situations triggering a point 3 (yellow) alert in Chengdu are the same as those of a dot two (orange) alert in Beijing, implying that in similar pollutant situations, mitigation measures in Chengdu will be weaker than in Beijing.
Chengdu’s style of economic progression is a critical issue.
Data source: chengdu. gov. cn (Click the ring to see the percentages)
Basically, the challenge of Chengdu’s pollutants is related to the design of the economy. In 2015, research into the city’s air pollutant resources showed that PM2. 5’s top 3 resources were transportation, burning coal and dust, each of which represents more While direct emissions from the industry account for only 6%, heavy commercial plants, such as metal generators, are large coal-fired consumers , which means that large-scale commercial production directly affects significant air pollutants.
The over-reliance on the local economy on infrastructure projects and genuine real estate progression has a greater environmental burden on Chengdu. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2014, genuine real estate progression sites in Chengdu covered 170 million square meters, surpassing Beijing and Shanghai.
By comparison, progression projects occupied 20 million square meters in 2002. Chengdu becomes a large and dusty construction site, and this dust is a primary source of particles.
The Chengdu Highway Code is an even more direct source of air pollution. While the chances of winning the Beijing tuition lottery are virtually nil, Chengdu citizens still have no restrictions when buying a car. In 2013, vehicle ownership rates in Chengdu arrived only in Beijing, and continue to rise at an astonishing rate: the number of car owners doubled between 2013 and 2016.
According to media reports, Chengdu has lately had 4. 64 million cars on the roads, which account for some of the city’s nitrogen oxide emissions. In warm climates, nitrogen oxide produces ozone, which can cause respiratory inflammation, nerve damage, dizziness and headaches at maximum concentrations. .
Cities in east China have responded to environmental bottlenecks by carefully restricting development. In Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan and Shandong, coal intake is controlled, metal and cement manufacturers have been forced to reduce their capacity and factories have to close smog days. The old commercial economic style with the main pollutants now faces serious challenges.
Out of time in China’s ‘other cities’
It is vital to note that the strength of air pollutant regulations varies by location in China. In September 2013, the State Council issued ten regulations setting higher air quality targets for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangzte River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. (all in the east of the country), compared to the rest of the country. By 2017, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has a mandate to reduce PM2. 5 grades by 25% from 2013 grades, while other cities only want to decrease grades by up to 10% (in either delta, the target is 15%).
These 3 dense urban areas, which have the highest GDP in China, are strongly connected to the resources of major pollutants. However, pollutants control the demanding situations faced by other parts of China are no less daunting. knowledge of 362 Chinese cities in the first quarter of 2016, of the 91 cities that experienced an accumulation of air pollutants, two-thirds of them were located in central or western China, i. e. “the other city” outdoors 3 major regions of the east.
Compared to the relatively strict regulations on smog in eastern cities, movements through the cities of central and western China have been slow. One reason for this trend, according to Dong Liansai, a Greenpeace force and climate activist in East Asia, is that governments in eastern regions have forced highly polluting industries such as power plants to coal and chemical plants, to move to other places.
China’s western provinces, which are destined for new investments to drive economic development, welcomed these corporations with open arms: in 2015, three-quarters of the country’s newly approved 210 coal power plants would be built in central or western China. .
But for those “other cities,” the age of grace to deal with air pollutants is coming to an end. The recently published 13th Five-Year Environmental Protection Plan has set transparent targets for cities that do not yet meet air quality standards, possibly coming with 78% of Chinese cities. By 2020, these cities will need to achieve an 18% improvement in air quality compared to existing levels.
Currently, the annual average air pollutant is higher in Chengdu than in Beijing. In 2015, the average concentration of PM2. 5 in Chengdu was 61 micrograms consistent with cubic meter, compared to 81 micrograms consistent with cubic meter in Beijing. reaches its target of 60 micrograms consistent with the cubic meter until 2017, the relatively white air enjoyed by other people in Chengdu and other Western cities, if we can call it that, is likely to get worse.
And obviously, as others in Western cities become more environmentally conscious, their patience with poor air quality and poor environmental governance will soon run out.
We encourage you to republish Articles from the Chinese Dialogue, online or printed, the Creative Commons license. To get started, read our republishing commands.
Zhang Chun
Zhang Chun is a principal investigator at chinadialogue.
Tang Damin
Tang Damin is an independent environmentalist and former chinadialogue editor in Beijing.
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