The Washington Post-Chinas air quality worsened this year for the first time in a decade
December 22, 2023 3 min 604 words
这篇报道揭示了中国空气质量在过去十年首次恶化的现象，这是一个引起深刻关注的问题。研究指出，今年主要城市的空气污染危害性出现反弹，煤炭燃烧和工业活动激增打破了十年来朝着更清洁天空的进展。PM 2.5微小颗粒物的浓度比2022年末上升了7.7％，令人担忧。尽管不利的风向和降雨可能部分原因，但上升的浓度主要集中在煤炭和重工业区域。中国曾经发起过对抗空气污染的“战争”，但近年来进展放缓，甚至停滞。经济对煤炭和污染性重工业的依赖成为中国空气质量难以实现明显改善的主要问题。习近平称化石燃料在短期内仍将是中国电力系统的“支柱”，这似乎表明经济安全的过度关切在一定程度上加剧了问题。最近的寒潮导致能源需求激增，70％的供应仍来自煤炭，这凸显了中国在能源转型中的困境。中国宣布的减排计划是积极的一步，但实现这些目标需要更加切实可行的行动，以确保环保与经济增长的平衡。
2023-12-22T03:09:46.118Z
Hazardous air pollution rebounded in most major Chinese cities this year, research showed, after a surge in coal burning and industrial activity upended a decade of progress toward cleaner skies.
Compared to 2022, levels of microscopic particles spewed into the air from burning fossil fuels were up 7.7 percent by the end of November, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finland-based nonprofit, said on Friday.
When inhaled, these tiny pieces of pollution known as PM 2.5 can be severely harmful to health. One study estimated that air pollution caused 1.85 million deaths in China in 2019.
While unfavorable wind patterns and rainfall may be partially to blame, the rise was concentrated in areas of the country’s coal and heavy industry hubs, according to the group’s analysis of air quality readings alongside industrial and power generation data.
China is close to peak emissions, but it doesn’t want to talk about it
After decades of prioritizing the economy over the environment, public concern about the dangerous pollution became impossible to ignore around the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Disclosure of air quality data by the United States Embassy and local activists eventually forced Chinese authorities to confront the smog that engulfed Chinese cities every winter.
In 2014, top officials launched a “war on pollution” that combined real-time monitoring with strict punishment for factories and local officials failing to make improvements. In its early years, the campaign was remarkably successful. In 2021, the average concentration of fine particulate matter was 40 percent lower than in 2013.
But in recent years the rate of progress has slowed and now stalled. Even after years of improvement, the average levels of air pollution nationwide remain five times above the World Health Organization guidelines.
The problem is the same one that makes China the world’s largest emitter of atmosphere-warming greenhouse gases: its economic reliance on coal-fired power and polluting heavy industries such as steel, aluminum and cement.
China’s huge network of coal mines, already responsible for more than half of global production, has churned out record volumes of the black rock this year in response to demands from Beijing to make sure the country has a stable supply of electricity.
China’s powerful leader, Xi Jinping, has said that the fossil fuel will remain the “mainstay” of the Chinese power system in the near term, even as the country installs massive amounts of wind, solar, hydro and nuclear power.
Before China’s coal is even burned, its mines are warming the planet
An obsession among policymakers about energy security has been worsened in recent years by power shortages exacerbated by heat waves and freezing winters causing spiking power demands.
After a cold snap plunged temperatures to record lows across northern China this month, electricity demand hit its highest ever daily level on Dec. 17, with 70 percent of supply for households being met by coal, Chinese state media reported.
In an apparent attempt to regain momentum in the fight against air pollution, China last month announced a plan to ensure that concentrations of fine particulate matter fall 10 percent nationwide and 20 percent in Beijing and its surroundings between 2020 and 2025.
Pei-Lin Wu and Vic Chiang in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed reporting.