Environmental authority releases air quality targets for 2019

SHANGHAI, Mar 27 (SMM) – Chinese cities that failed to meet national air quality standards were required to cut their annual average concentration of the major air pollutant PM2.5 by at least 2% year on year in 2019, said the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) at the end of February. 

The average number of days with fairly good air quality across cities above the prefecture level is targeted to reach 79.4%, according to the Essentials for National Air Pollution Prevention and Control in 2019 released on the MEE website on February 28. 

Emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in China should be cut by 3% on the year. 

In 2018, the number of days with fairly good air quality across 338 cities averaged 79.3%, up 1.3 percentage points on the year. The domestic average concentration of PM2.5 stood at 39 μg/m³, down 9.3% from 2017, according to MEE data.