Jan 4, 2022: After concerted efforts to reduce coal consumption, reduce transportation emissions and relocate heavy industry, officials say the Chinese capital, Beijing, met national air quality standards for the first time last year.

China’s declaration of war on pollution in 2014 after public outrage rose following the rise in dangerous smog in Beijing and elsewhere.

The average reading of small, hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 reached 33 micrograms per cubic meter in the capital throughout 2021, Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau officials told reporters on Tuesday. Which is 13% less than it was a year earlier and meeting China’s interim standard of 35 micrograms for the first time on record.

The annual average of 33 micrograms remains much higher than the recommended World Health Organization level of five micrograms.

Yu Jianhua, deputy head of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, called the city’s efforts over the past 10 years, as well as the pace of its improvement, “unprecedented.”

“All regions and all departments worked together and organized the whole society to bring about a comprehensive improvement in Beijing’s air quality,” he said. He added that Beijing residents enjoyed about four months more clear skies last year than in 2013. Beijing promised in 2015 that it would use the 2022 Winter Olympics to improve its environment, with Chinese President Xi Jinping promising to host the “green” games.

As a measure of progress, the average reading of PM2.5 was 71 micrograms in 2016, but often reached 500 micrograms during the winter months, when coal-fired heating systems were turned on throughout the region.

Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have since made efforts to clean up natural gas, build large-scale wind and solar farms, and plant large numbers of trees throughout the region.

They have also imposed new strict fuel standards on cars and forced steel mills and other industrial facilities to install equipment to control emissions.

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