As of October 22, downtown Chongqing has witnessed a record 100 days of good air quality, up 19 days annually. It marks the best air quality level since the implementation of the new air quality standards in 2013, according to Chongqing Ecology and Environment Bureau. So far, downtown Chongqing has seen up to 254 days of good or moderate air quality, with a passing rate of 86.1%.

Since 2019, the Chongqing municipal government has carried out eight categories of 70 measures for over 2,000 engineering projects. Chongqing highlights “Four Controls and Two Increases” measures (to control traffic, industrial, domestic, and dust pollution; to increase regulatory and scientific research abilities). It overcame the adverse meteorological conditions in early 2019 and the high-temperature in summer and autumn, and it effectively cut the emission of air pollutants. The blue sky protection campaign has now seen a preliminary success.

On controlling traffic pollution, Chongqing stresses the reduction of diesel truck pollution. Seven new motor vehicle standards were implemented. Two hundred electric taxis and 8,871 new energy cars were promoted, and 110 gloating restaurants were banned.

On dust pollution, the government prioritizes regulating construction site dust and road dust. Dust control demonstration roads and construction sites were established and consolidated. Illegal wharves were regulated. Over 1.3 million square meters of marginal land and bare land were greened. 7.36 million tons of water was used for dust suppression, a 7.2% increase from the same period last year.

On industrial pollution, the Chongqing government completed an in-depth curb on the waste gas from 153 industrial enterprises engaging in cement, glass, volatile organic compound and other sectors; 39 furnaces were subject to low-nitrogen combustion renovation and clean energy renovation, and 515 industrial enterprises were put under environmental enforcement supervision.

On domestic pollution, 25.2 km2 of high-polluting fuel restricted zones were increased. Restrictive rules on fireworks were turned into prohibitive ones. The air quality during the New Year Festival was thus effectively improved. On regulation and scientific research, Chongqing Municipal Air Pollution Control Battle Command launched air pollution early warnings and countermeasures for eight times. More than 20,000 notifications on ozone control in summer and autumn were released. A big data information platform for the blue sky protection campaign was established.

Currently, affected by the geological and meteorological conditions, Chongqing still faces difficulties in improving its air quality. It is vulnerable to sub-standard PM2.5 levels due to the calm wind, temperature inversion, foggy, and rainless weather in autumn and winter.

In this case, since September, the Air Pollution Control Battle Command and several other member units circulated strengthened supervision plans for the blue sky protection campaign in autumn and winter. They are prepared to strive for the blue sky protection battle in the upcoming seasons and achieve the annual target for the campaign.

Source: Cqnews