In an interview on October 22 in Beijing, Pei Xiaofei, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, shared insights on the country’s environmental progress over the past three quarters of this year.
Pei emphasized that both air quality and surface water quality in China have continued to show overall improvement. She reported that among the 339 cities at the prefectural level and above, key pollutants such as PM2.5 and PM10 have witnessed a reduction trend, with what she described as “four declines and two stays the same.” Specifically, the average concentration of PM2.5 was recorded at 27 micrograms per cubic meter, which is a 3.6% decrease compared to the previous year, while PM10 averaged 47 micrograms per cubic meter, showing a decline of 7.8%.
Pei noted that the proportion of days with good air quality across these cities reached 85.8%, marking an increase of 1.6 percentage points year-on-year. Conversely, the days classified as having severe pollution were down to 1.1%, a drop of 0.7 percentage points from last year.
Focusing on key regions, she mentioned that in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and surrounding cities, the average PM2.5 concentration remained stable at 39 micrograms per cubic meter. However, the proportion of days with good air quality in this region climbed to 65%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points.
On the topic of surface water quality, Pei revealed that during the third quarter, 78.8% of the 3,641 national monitoring sites reported good water quality (categories I-III), which is a rise of 1.5 percentage points from last year. Only 0.8% of these sites fell into the poor quality category (category V), a slight decline of 0.1 percentage points. Overall, for the first three quarters, the percentage of monitoring sites with good water quality was 88.5%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points, while the percentage of sites in the poor category remained steady at 0.7%.
Pei’s remarks reflect the ongoing efforts and advancements in China’s environmental policies aimed at improving public health and preserving natural resources.
