SZ aims to further improve air quality

Writer: Han Ximin  | Editor: Holly Wang  | From:  | Updated: 2019-02-26

Shenzhen's PM2.5 particle concentration in 2018 was 26 micrograms per cubic meter, the best in the city’s monitoring history and the lowest among Pearl River Delta cities, sources from the Shenzhen Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau said.

The city’s air quality ranked No. 6 among the 169 cities monitored by the national environmental protection authority. The concentrations of six types of pollutants have been greatly reduced. The number of hazy days was reduced to 20 last year, the best in the past 28 years, the bureau said.

Shenzhen also became the only city with air quality that had met national standards among China’s top 20 cities regarding GDP, according to the environment authority.

Shenzhen is working with Hong Kong to compile a standard system for air treatment and will promote it to the whole Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Shenzhen adopted systematic approaches to air quality treatment in 2004 and unveiled a package of measures, such as restricting yellow-labeled vehicles on the road.

Shenzhen is also the first city in China to develop PM2.5 pollutant source identifications. In 2018, the city established a grid monitoring system by setting up monitoring stations in each subdistrict. The city is the first in the country to enforce the use of national VI-standard diesel fuel, which eliminated 129,000 old and used vehicles. The city’s public transport, including buses and cabs, had all been replaced with electricity-powered alternatives by the end of 2018. The 11 power-generating units have been renovated and replaced with cleaner fuel.

Starting in January, Shenzhen environment authorities require vessels in the city’s sea areas to use fuels with sulfur content below 0.5 percent. Shenzhen also encourages the use of fuel with sulfur content below 0.1 percent.

Shenzhen will also cooperate with Hong Kong to follow up on the progress in implementing air pollution measures and hold exchanges over emissions reduction, air quality monitoring and vessel emissions in the waters of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Shenzhen will join hands with other cities in the Greater Bay Area in air pollution prevention and promote controls in vehicle emissions, industrial VOC, dust at construction sites and vessel emissions, in efforts to control the PM2.5 concentration within 25 micrograms per cubic meter by 2020.