Sunday, December 22, 2013

US$ 300 Billion Investment to Clean Up Air Pollution in Chinese Cities


A total of 1.75 trillion yuan (290 billion U.S. dollars) will be invested from 2013 to 2017 to deal with China's worsening air pollution, an environment expert said on Wednesday.

Link to the article from China Daily.

Wang Jinnan, deputy head of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, said at the 4th Caixin Summit in Beijing that the investment would drive up GDP by nearly 2 trillion yuan and create over 2 million jobs.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Shanghai

According to Wang, 36.7 percent of the investment, or 640 billion yuan should go on cleaning up industry, followed by 490 billion yuan (28.2 percent) on cleaner energy sources. Cleaning up motor vehicles will absorb 210 billion yuan.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Beijing

The State Council issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in September to control PM2.5 (airborne particles of less than 2.5 microns diameter).

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Guangzhou

The action plan requires PM2.5 in populated regions and metropolises to be reduced significantly by 2017. The annual average of PM2.5 in Beijing would be expected to drop to 60 micrograms per cubic meter.

Link to the article in the Guardian.

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From Global Times

Over 1 trillion yuan ($163.4 billion) will be allocated to the fight against air pollution in Beijing amid a newly-issued five-year action plan, dubbed the strongest since 1988, an official in the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection said Monday.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Chengdu

However, only 200 to 300 billion will come from the government.

The rest of the money will be taken from enterprises and other organizations, Wang Xiaoming, director of the publicity department of the bureau, told the Global Times, adding that the contributing enterprises would be those responsible for air pollution.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Kunming

Over the next five years, the plan calls for the cutting of the concentration of PM2.5 particles (airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter) to a level of around 60 micrograms per cubic meter. This would represent a decline of about 25 percent compared with the 2012 level, according to the Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013-17) released on September 12.

Of all the plans, this represents the most comprehensive since 1988, when the city started to tackle air pollution, Fang Li, deputy head of the bureau, said at a press conference Monday, The Beijing News reported.


Real-time air quality and air quality index in Tianjin

 "One trillion yuan is a large investment into combating air pollution," said Ma Jun, director with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, adding that transparency would need to be a key component of the plan.

The action plan includes eight pollution reduction projects with 84 specific tasks, divided among 42 bureaus and 23 enterprises in 14 districts and two counties of the city, and outlines the specific people responsible and the timetable, the China Economic Weekly said in a report on Monday.

The plan also calls for the city to cut coal consumption by 13 million tons.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Chifeng

Although 13 million tons is not a small amount, this will not have a significant influence on the city  due to the large coal consumption of  industrial bases in the surrounding areas, Wang Tao, a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy, told the Global Times Tuesday.

The measures to reduce coal consumption should be carried out on a regional basis in coordination with surrounding areas like Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces, and without efforts by these areas, the city alone cannot tackle the pollution from burning coal, Wang said.

Real-time air quality and air quality index in Baoding

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