According to the official data, although the air quality in China’s various regions has improved in the month of December 2018, the pollution in China’s heavy-industrial province of Henan worsened during the month as its cities were hit by unfavourable weather and a struggle to find cleaner sources of economic growth.
As a part of China’s environmental policy to have clearer skies, the country is restricting industrial output, traffic and coal consumption in the smog-prone regions for a second year during the winter heating period, when thousands of mainly coal-burning boilers are switched on.
However, Henan province which has nine cities and is home to 95 million people still recorded a rise in small, lung-damaging emissions known as PM2.5 to an average of 82 micrograms per cubic metre in the last month of 2018, up 12% from a year earlier.
In fact, Henan’s smog concentration has worsened to such a level since the last week of December that the government has issued a red alert for heavy air pollution on 5 Jan’18, forecasting the pollution to persist for several days. The red alert is issued when the air quality index (AQI) surpasses 200 for four consecutive days, surpasses 300 for two days or the daily AQI reaches 500.
As per the industry experts, the situation in Henan province have worsened as many cities there are at the mercy of the weather, with conditions such as high humidity and low wind exacerbating smog.
About 79 cities throughout north and east China have drawn up plans to control smog this winter, with many cities committed to cut PM 2.5 emissions by 3% against last year.
Hebei which is also a major steel producing province has promised to cut PM2.5 by 5% this year compared to 2018. It has vowed to cut another 14 MnT of steel smelting capacity and 9 MnT of coal production, after shutting 12.3 MnT and 13 MnT respectively in 2018. The province said last week it had cut PM2.5 by 12.5% to an average of 56 micrograms over the whole of 2018, beating its target.
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