China Plans to Adopt More Stringent Anti-Pollution Measures in 2019

Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) announced in a statement that it will adopt more targeted and efficient policies as part of its campaign against pollution in the year 2019.

The ministry also added that it will not relax the targets or ease on their crackdown against violators.

The new measures have been introduced after the yearly meeting of China's top leaders summed up China's ailing economy amid downward pressure.

The ministry has called local environmental bureaus to help companies to set up pollution treatment solution plans and to pay attention to reasonable appeals of companies during environmental inspections.

MEE said that "We will coordinate environmental protection with economic development and avoid simple and brutal forces to deal with violations."

The Ministry has scheduled a second round of central environmental inspection starting from 2019 which will last for the next three years. The inspections form part of the government’s Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Battle for Blue Skies.

The MEE added that it has issued 166,210 notices of penalty decisions to environmental regulation violators, with fines totaling 13.6 billion yuan (USD 1.98 billion) in the first 11 months of this year.

China is consistently revising its environmental policies and programs, removing blanket production cuts on heavy industries. They also allowed local authorities to adopt measures based on their regional emission levels. However, the air quality in the region remains dangerous, raising the argument that the government is not doing everything to stop violators.

In Beijing, the average concentration of lung-damaging particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) jumped 61% in November compared with the same month last year, the environment ministry reported last week. In a group of smog-prone 26 northern cities, PM2.5 readings rose 33% last month compared with November 2017 to 88 micrograms per cubic meter - more than double the state standard of 35 micrograms.

source: SteelMint

Anti-Pollution Measures environmental bureaus Battle for Blue Skies