Home / Environmental protection
Government officials of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei met on Monday to discuss a roadmap on joint control of atmospheric pollution.
The Medium and Long-Term Planning of Regional Atmospheric Pollution Control will officially start compilation in June. It will be the first regional air quality control planning in China.
The officials discussed the status quo of air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and shared other regions’ experiences and practices, to raise suggestions on strengthening regional collaboration.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region plans to invest a total of 5.9 billion yuan ($950 million) to tackle air pollution in 2015.
The capital city has also set an ambitious target of lowering the annual average density of PM 2.5 — particulate matters measuring 2.5 micrometers or less that can penetrate the lungs — by 25 percent, from 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter in 2014 to 60 micrograms per cubic meter in 2017.
But the city and the region lack long-term guidelines for air pollution control.
Wang Jinnan, chief engineer of the Environmental Planning Institute under the Ministry of Environment, said the region is expected to draw eco red lines and build an ecological community, dividing the region into five main functional areas including the exploitation-prohibited area, important eco-function area, main agricultural production area, optimizing development area and key development area.
The ecological function areas in the regions will be placed within the eco red lines and subject to strict protection measures.
The region will set more stringent air quality standards and a tighter schedule to reduce pollution. Beijing, Tianjin, and eight cities in Hebei province including Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan, Baoding, Hengshui, Tangshan, Cangzhou and Langfang will be classified as key control areas, while Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Qinhuangdao will be ordinary control areas.
It will also draw atmospheric red lines for annual average density of major air pollutants.
Li Lixin, a senior official of Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the formulation of a joint early warning and emergency response action plan on heavy air pollution is underway, to standardize emergency measures and take pro-active actions to fight against air pollution.
