How Many Chinese Cities Are Meeting Government Pollution Standards?

The short answer to this question is not many. Just eight of China’s 74 cities met the basic national standard of a maximum 35 micrograms of particulate matter (PM) per cubic metre in 2014. But believe it or not, these results are actually an improvement for the world’s largest polluter; in 2013 the same standards were met by just three cities.

The improvement comes after China relented to environmental concerns about its pollution problem, dubbed the “Airpocolypse” in Beijing, and promised to “declare war on pollution”. A government promise was made to “name and shame” the cities with the highest levels of air pollution, and 50,000 of the most archaic, dirty coal fired furnaces across the country were marked for closure.

China’s acknowledgement that it even has a pollution problem was seen as a huge step towards reducing global pollution in the international community but, in a country that is responsible for a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, progress is slow. According to the Chinese government, getting on par with the new standards could take up to 15 years which, although doable at the current rate of five cities per year, seems better paced to a game of chess than a war.

Why haven’t China done more?

The health implications of China’s poor air quality are so serious that a study in British medical journal, The Lancet, found that toxic air is now the fourth highest cause of death. In 2010 1.2 million people died as a result of China’s air pollution – around 40% of the worldwide total. So why aren’t China more concerned with kick starting their environmental policies?

Critics speculate that China is more concerned with economic growth than expensive environmental policies, a notion not helped by the fact that China’s environmental budget only rose 0.37% in 2014 despite promises to combat pollution head on.

Reducing coal consumption in areas of heavy industry is a huge problem. A dependence on coal and lack of solid regulation means that industrial practices will need to be completely overhauled, an expensive process for a country trying desperately not to halt economic growth.

Not every city has taken such a half-hearted approach. At the end of 2014, Shenzhen, one of the eight cities that successfully met government standards, became the latest Chinese city to restrict car sales to combat the ever-growing smog. The Chinese government has also been actively encouraging environmental groups to sue polluters, giving them special status and reduced court fees to fight the culprits judicially. This, however, is at little expense to the government itself.

For some of China’s smoggiest cities the road to clean air is likely to be a challenge. Beijing, surrounded by the industrial province of Hebei, stacked up a reading of 93 micrograms of PM per cubic meter in 2014 – that’s nearly three times over the current limit. In such a dire situation, the only thing that is clear is that if China can’t find an economic-friendly solution to their pollution problem, progress is going to be very slow indeed.

For more information about China’s goals to reduce pollution levels, read this article: Air Pollution in China Today- Emissions, APC Equipment and the Effect of the 12th 5-Year Plan.