State Council launches action plan to further improve air quality

China's State Council unveiled an action plan for the continuous improvement of air quality on Thursday, underscoring the country's commitment to global climate governance amid the COP28 climate summit.

The plan proposes to optimize the energy mix by promoting the development of green energy and implementing strict restrictions on coal consumption.

By 2025, China aims to increase the consumption of new and clean energy. Electricity is targeted to make up 30 percent of the total energy end-use consumption and non-fossil energy consumption is set to reach 20 percent, it said.

The plan puts forward curbs on coal consumption to ensure the security of energy supply. By 2025, coal consumption in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is expected to fall by 10 percent compared with 2020 and that in the Yangtze River Delta region is expected to decline by 5 percent.

The government will impose a ban on new additions to steel production capacity and straw burning in key areas, it said.

It is expected that by 2025, PM 2.5 concentrations in Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above can be reduced by 10 percent from 2020, the annual ratio of days with heavy pollution and above should be within 1 percent, and the emissions of nitric oxide and volatile organic compounds can be cut by 10 percent from 2020, according to the plan.

The plan focuses on three regions that have significant air pollution challenges and require targeted measures, namely the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Fenwei Plain region.