Unlike Beijing, Delhi has no time-bound targets

BEIJING/NEW DELHI: The recently concluded Communist Party Congress saw Chinese president Xi Jinping calling for the establishment of a “beautiful China”. His emphasis was on fighting pollution. The challenge for the party is the widespread dismay over smog in Beijing and several Chinese cities through winter and beyond. China is also in a rush to bring down pollution levels before it hosts the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in and around the capital.

Beijing’s local government is working on a target to bring down the average PM2.5 level to 60 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017 from the 73 last year (Delhi’s annual average over the last three years was 132). The Chinese ministry of environmental protection defines the mark of 50 micrograms per cubic metre as “good”.

Experts said Beijing and other polluted provinces have recorded a consistent improvement in air quality in line with the targets set for them.

“Average levels have fallen by approximately 20% across eastern China,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, researcher for Greenpeace based in Beijing. A recent study by Tsinghua University concluded that the Chinese capital’s action plan helped reduce PM2.5 concentrations by 21% in the past two years.

In Delhi, in contrast, while the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution Control Authority too recommended reduction of coarse PM10 pollutant concentrations by 74%, respirable PM2.5 by 70%, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 37.5%, the Centre declined to set dates to achieve these targets.

“The target reduction level of various pollutants should be practical, achievable and should be commensurate with the proposed action plan,” the Centre had told the court.

China took a number of steps to meet the targets. “The most impactful measures have been strong emission standards for coal-fired power plants and reductions in the amount of coal-burning. This is something we can verify from satellite data: the largest air quality improvements have taken place around the largest clusters of coal-fired power plants. In India the trend is the opposite, the coal-fired power plant clusters are showing increased emissions,” Myllyvirta said.

The Chinese authorities closed thousands of industrial units around Beijing and other major cities, encouraged the large-scale use of battery-operated cars and cut production in polluting coal mines and steel mills.

Industries that engaged in “non-capital functions” by producing goods not urgently required by Beijing’s 22 million people were asked to relocate to distant places. And unlike states abutting Delhi, Hebei, a province that neighbours Beijing, recently announced it would create a new green belt and expand forest coverage. Beijing also allows only a restricted number of car licence plates to be distributed through lottery every year to reduce vehicular sales.

Experts believe the key to air quality improvement in Beijing and across China is robust enforcement.

“They have a very strong accountability mechanism for city administrations to meet the targets. People can lose their jobs if the objectives are met by the deadline,” pointed out Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of clean air programme at the Centre for Science and Environment.

Myllyvirta added, “Career prospects of provincial and local government officials are determined by their performance in enforcing industrial emission standards.”

The Chinese government said these actions had borne fruit and the number of smog-filled days when the air quality index in that country’s major cities was higher than 100 had come down from 58 in 2013 to 39 in 2016.