By Wang Fang

Fresh Measures to Make Skies Blue Again

By Wang Fang

Stricter regulation and promotion of natural gas usage have led to modest improvements in China's air quality, but there is much more to do

“In the past, we relied on coal burning for winter heating, and though it was cheap, it was also inconvenient. We needed to move coal and pour cinder, which made our homes dirty,” explained Ms. Liu, who lives in Shuiyuzui Village, Miaofengshan Town of Mentougou District in western Beijing. Nowadays, her household uses natural gas not only for winter heating but also for cooking, as it is both convenient to use and moderately priced.

In northern China, especially Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province, a large number of people, just like Liu, no longer use coal for winter heating. This is down to a government project that has advocated the use of natural gas and electricity as replacements for the traditionally used coal.

These days, air pollution has become a major concern in China. On March 5, during the annual legislative and political consultative sessions, also known as the “two sessions”, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered the annual government work report and said, “We will make our skies blue again. First, we will work faster to address pollution caused by coal burning. We will take comprehensive steps to reduce non-centralized coal burning operations and promote clean winter heating in the northern region.”

Timetable for Clean Winter Heating

“Compared with previous years, the wording of Premier Li Keqiang’s government work report this year is more concrete and has clearer thinking,” said Chang Jiwen, deputy director of the Institute for Resources and Environmental Policy at the Development Research Center of China’s State Council. Chang added that in terms of environmental protection, the government work report not only requires reducing smog across China, but also proposes specific objectives in controlling air pollution.

The 2017 work report calls for“promoting clean winter heating in northern regions, replacing the use of coal with electricity and natural gas in more than 3 million households and shutting down all small coal-fired furnaces in established districts of cities at the prefectural level and above."

China has attached great importance to clean winter heating and has actively promoted the cause. On Feb. 28, at the ninth meeting of the air pollution control collaborative team for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, an official from the National Energy Administration said that in 28 cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and 26 cities of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan provinces, air pollution remains serious. All 28 cities are subject to monitoring and investigation by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), and special research on natural gas supply security for the replacement of coal with natural gas for clean winter heating has been completed. On March 23, the MEP issued its Work Plan of Air Pollution Control for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Its Surrounding Areas in 2017, which stresses comprehensive promotion of clean winter heating and shutting down all small coal-fired furnaces.

Liu Bingjiang, director of the Department of Air Environmental Management under the MEP and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said that currently, the biggest problem is coal burning in villages and rural areas.

“The amount of pollutants emitted during coal burning is equivalent to 10 times or more that of pollutants emitted by power plants,” Liu said.

Governments at various levels in China have promoted “coal free areas” since June 2016. According to a report titled Strengthening Measures for Air Pollution Prevention and Control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei for the Year 2016-2017, areas of Tianjin, Baoding (Hebei Province) and Langfang (Hebei) that border Beijing are defined as “coal free areas”. In the “coal free areas”, apartfrom coal used in coal-fired power plants, coal-fired central heating enterprises and companies using coal as a raw material, all operations using coal as fuel must be shut down by October 2017.

The largest coal-f i red furnace in Haidian district, Beijing, fi nalized the replacement of coal with natural gas on Nov. 7, 2013.

Cure for Smog

Multiple studies have shown that non-centralized coal burning is the main cause of air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as well as their surrounding areas.

According to public data, as of November 2016, a combined 227,000 households from 663 villages in Beijing had replaced coal with electricity and natural gas. By the end of December 2016, a total of 620,300 households had replaced coal with natural gas in villages and towns across Hebei, among which 323,600 households lie in the “coal free areas”.

Behind the improving air quality is the determination of the government to control air pollution. According to Liu Bingjiang, China is currently taking on the world’s largest and cleanest ultra-low emission upgrade of its coal-fired power plants, requiring coal-fired power plants' emissions to be basically the same as the emissions of pollutants by natural gas power plants. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China will increase use of natural gas by 200 billion cubic meters, which is equivalent to a reduction of 380 million tons in coal consumption.

However, Liu Bingjiang said that environmental protection measures cannot always stop people in villages and rural areas from burning coal, and replacing coal with electricity and natural gas for pollution control is the only solution.

The Beijing Municipal Government has pledged to replace coal with clean energy for 2,000 villages by 2020, which is unprecedented," Liu added.

Not An Easy Task

China took stronger measures against air pollution in 2016 compared to previous years, and as a result saw a 5.6 percent decline in sulfur dioxide emissions, a 4 percent cut in nitrogen oxide emissions and a 9.1 percent drop in the annual average density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 74 key cities over the course of 2016. The air quality of 84 out of 338 prefecture-level and above cities in China met relevant air quality standards in 2016, compared to just 73 in 2015.

Although air quality in 2016 improved, China’s environmental pollution situation remains grim. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed specifically in this year’s government work report that“we will strengthen research on the causes of smog to improve the scientific basis and precision of steps taken. We will expand the coverage of mechanisms in key areas to ensure coordinated prevention and control efforts across regions, as well as enhance early warning and emergency response measures. Officials who respond inadequately to worsening air quality will be held fully accountable.”

In the view of Chen Jining, former Minister of Environmental Protection, pollution prevention and control in winter is the most difficult task facing China's environmental regulators.“We have been improving the environment under the circumstances of high emissions of pollutants, which is not just a figure on the surface but indicates complex economic and social activities biased toward heavy industry,” Chen said at a press conference in Beijing on March 9. "The adjustment of these issues involves all aspects of work that requires a process and takes time, but we will certainly solve this problem faster than developed countries did."

Apart from Beijing and Tianjin, coal accounts for nearly 90 percent of the energy consumption structure in northern China. Coal consumption in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas is more than 1 billion tons annually. In winter, coal burning contributes more than one-third of PM2.5 — the smallest and most dangerous type of pollutant particle — in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

In order to make its skies blue again, apart from accelerating control of pollution caused by coal burning, China will also comprehensively promote control of the sources of pollution, strengthen vehicle exhaust management, effectively respond to heavy smog, enforce environmental law strictly and conduct widespread supervision and accountability measures.