Accelerate phase-outs and strictly prohibit new additions! A total of 62,000 enterprises have been shut down or relocated, and over 1,000 enterprises along the river have been moved.

In the course of industrial development, air pollution has become a concern across all sectors. It not only contributes to global warming but also gives rise to “natural pollutants” such as acid rain and PM2.5, posing a threat to the survival of living organisms.

To improve air quality, China recently adopted and issued the “Action Plan for the Continuous Improvement of Air Quality,” with key control areas covering more than 75 cities across seven provinces nationwide.

Lower concentrations! Reduce emissions! This involves more than 75 cities across 7 provinces nationwide!

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, on December 8, the State Council issued a notice promulgating the “Action Plan for the Continued Improvement of Air Quality” (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”). The Plan sets out to sustain the battle to safeguard blue skies, protect public health, and implement the tasks outlined at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection. With improving air quality as its core objective, the Plan prioritizes reducing severe pollution episodes and addressing pressing local air‑quality issues, while focusing on lowering fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. It also calls for vigorous efforts to cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Overall Objective

By 2025, the national PM2.5 concentration in cities at or above the prefecture level is to be reduced by 10% compared with 2020 levels, and the proportion of days with severe or worse air pollution is to be kept below 1%. Total emissions of nitrogen oxides and VOCs are to be cut by more than 10% each, relative to 2020 levels.

PM2.5 concentrations in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and its surrounding areas, as well as in the Fenwei Plain, decreased by 20% and 15%, respectively. In the Yangtze River Delta, PM2.5 levels generally met national standards, while Beijing kept its concentration below 32 micrograms per cubic meter.

The key areas for improvement are as follows:

Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and surrounding areas

Beijing Municipality, Tianjin Municipality, and the cities of Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Handan, Xingtai, Baoding, Cangzhou, Langfang, and Hengshui in Hebei Province, as well as the Xiongan New Area and the cities of Xinji and Dingzhou; the cities of Jinan, Zibo, Zaozhuang, Dongying, Weifang, Jining, Tai’an, Rizhao, Linyi, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, and Heze in Shandong Province; and the cities of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Pingdingshan, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Puyang, Xuchang, Luohe, Sanmenxia, Shangqiu, Zhoukou, and Jiyuan in Henan Province.

Yangtze River Delta region

Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu Province, and the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province; as well as the cities of Hefei, Wuhu, Bengbu, Huainan, Ma’anshan, Huaibei, Chuzhou, Fuyang, Suzhou, Lu’an, and Bozhou in Anhui Province.

Fenwei Plain

Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, Jincheng, Jinzhong, Yuncheng, Linfen, and Lüliang cities in Shanxi Province; Xi’an, Tongchuan, Baoji, Xianyang, and Weinan cities in Shaanxi Province; as well as the Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Industrial Demonstration Zone and Hancheng City.

Accelerating phase-out! 62,000 have already closed; over 1,000 have relocated!

At a regular briefing, Liu Bingjiang, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Director-General of the Department of Atmospheric Environment, revealed that, since the implementation of the Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control and the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Battle for Blue Skies—and in line with the supply-side structural reform—China has reduced its national steel production capacity by 250 million tons and its coal consumption by 1 billion tons over the past eight years. All approximately 140 million tons of “strip‑steel” production have been eliminated, and 400 million tons of outdated cement capacity have been phased out. In the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and surrounding areas, 62,000 small, scattered, and polluting enterprises and industrial clusters have undergone cleanup and rectification, while more than 1,000 chemical plants in cities along the Yangtze River have been relocated or upgraded to meet stricter environmental standards.

The current “Action Plan for the Continuous Improvement of Air Quality” calls for optimizing the industrial, energy, and transportation structures, vigorously advancing green upgrades across multiple sectors; strengthening the control of diffuse pollution and reducing emissions of multiple pollutants to lower emission intensity; enhancing institutional and capacity-building efforts, improving the atmospheric management system, and reinforcing rigorous law enforcement and oversight; and refining the legal, regulatory, and standards framework while ensuring that all stakeholders fulfill their responsibilities to guarantee the plan’s implementation.

The plan proposes gradually phasing out industrial equipment in certain sectors and shutting down a number of enterprises. As the chemical industry is one of the key pillar industries, spanning multiple areas of national production, the plan includes several requirements that directly affect the chemical sector:

I. Resolutely curb the reckless launch of high-energy-consuming, high-emission, and low‑level projects, and strictly prohibit any new steel production capacity. Accelerate the phase-out of outdated capacity in key industries, and gradually retire processes and equipment in air‑polluting sectors subject to restrictions.

II. Gradually phase out step‑type sintering machines, shaft furnaces for pelletizing, and semi‑enclosed electric furnaces used for producing silicon‑manganese alloys, nickel‑iron, high‑carbon ferrochrome, and high‑carbon ferromanganese.

III. Comprehensively carry out the upgrading and transformation of traditional industrial clusters. For existing clusters, formulate targeted remediation plans to, in accordance with the law, phase out and shut down a number of enterprises, relocate others into designated industrial parks, upgrade and transform still others on-site, and enhance the competitiveness and strength of a select group.

IV. Optimize the composition of VOC‑containing raw and auxiliary materials and products. Strictly regulate new projects involving the production and use of coatings, inks, adhesives, cleaning agents, and other products with high VOC content, and increase the share of products with low (or zero) VOC content.

V. Promote the sound development of the green and environmentally friendly industries. Strengthen policy support by fostering a group of leading enterprises in areas such as the production and use of raw and auxiliary materials with low (or zero) VOC content, VOC pollution control, ultra‑low emissions, and environmental and atmospheric component monitoring.

VI. Continuously optimize and adjust the freight transport structure. For bulk commodities, prioritize rail and waterway transport for medium- and long-distance shipments, and use enclosed belt conveyors or new‑energy vehicles and vessels for short‑distance transport. Explore making clean transportation a key focus in the review and oversight of new, renovated, and expanded projects in industries such as coal mining, steel, thermal power, nonferrous metals, coking, and coal chemical processing.

VII. Strengthen comprehensive, end-to-end management of VOCs across all processes and stages. In cities with concentrated petrochemical and chemical industries in key regions, as well as in priority industrial parks, a unified information management platform for leak detection and repair shall be established by the end of 2024. During plant start-up, shutdown, and maintenance activities, enterprises shall promptly collect and treat VOC-containing waste gases generated from operations such as material withdrawal, cleaning, and purging.

VIII. Improve the environmental standards and technical specifications system. Conduct research to develop mandatory national standards setting VOC content limits for coating agents, polyurethane resins, household detergents, insecticidal aerosols, and other products, and establish a labeling system for low- or zero-VOC products; formulate technical requirements for activated carbon used in the treatment of organic waste gases; and accelerate the refinement of emission standards for air pollutants and energy‑consumption standards in key industries and sectors.

Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment