Intensity: No lessening! Continue to work hard to protect the blue sky, focus interview丨Direction: unchanged

June 5th is World Environment Day. This year, the theme of World Environment Day is "Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China in an All-Round Way". In the past few years, we have made unprecedented efforts to build an ecological civilization, and the construction of a beautiful China has taken major steps. The battle to protect blue skies has achieved historic achievements. my country has become the fastest country in the world in terms of air pollution control and air quality improvement. What has brought about such a change? Under the general requirement of promoting the construction of a beautiful China in an all-round way, what efforts do we need to make to brighten the blue sky?

In early summer in Beijing, the blue sky and sunset complement each other, becoming a theme in many people’s circle of friends. Data show that in 2023, the annual average concentration of fine particulate matter PM2.5 in Beijing's atmospheric environment will reach the national air quality secondary standard for the third consecutive year. Since the beginning of this year, as of the end of April, the cumulative concentration of PM2.5 in the city has dropped by 11.6% year-on-year to 38 micrograms/cubic meter. This is an epitome of the continuous improvement of my country's air quality.

PM2.5 refers to particulate matter in the atmosphere with a particle size less than or equal to 2.5 microns. As an important indicator for monitoring and evaluating air quality, it is closely related to people's health. The laboratory of the China Academy of Environmental Sciences stores PM2.5 samples from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region over the past ten years, recording changes in air quality.

Around 2013, PM2.5 frequently "exploded" and air pollution swept across the country, which is still impressive. This year, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out when presiding over the sixth collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that “efforts should be made to promote air pollution control in key industries and key areas.” In September of the same year, the State Council issued the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan", classifying the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta regions as key areas for air pollution prevention and control. This is my country's first action plan with the goal of improving ambient air quality. The battle to defend the blue sky has begun. The plan proposes ten measures such as reducing pollutant emissions, optimizing industrial structure, adjusting energy structure, and establishing a regional coordination mechanism, so it is also called the "Ten Measures for the Atmosphere."

Zhang Haolong, Deputy Director of the Atmospheric Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: The purpose is very clear. The focus is on how to solve the problem of serious PM2.5 pollution, so we have identified key areas and proposed for the first time the reduction ratio of PM2.5 in key areas. requirements, and at the same time clarified several governance directions, including coal control, vehicle control, dust control and other governance measures.

Hu Jingnan, director of the Institute of Atmospheric Environment of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences: PM2.5 has complex components and represents many sources. Because there are so many sources, if we want to manage it, it involves many fields and industries. With so many sources, it is very important for us to focus on what aspects of work we should focus on first in different regions and different industries.

As a major steel province, Hebei was once a symbol of economic prosperity with splashing steel flowers and billowing smoke. However, as the battle to defend the blue sky has begun, the steel industry has become the main battlefield for air pollution control. Cutting overcapacity, adjusting structure and promoting transformation have become hard tasks that Hebei must complete. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the number of Hebei steel companies dropped from 107 to 68, and the steel production capacity was reduced from the peak of 320 million tons to less than 200 million tons.

Cheng Hua, Minister of Environmental Protection Department of Qian'an Iron and Steel Company of Shougang Co., Ltd.: At that time, the entire Tangshan area required a 50% suspension limit in autumn and winter. The scale was very large because the production organization and cost pressure of the entire steel process enterprise would be great. In this case , only by working hard on emission reduction and reducing the total amount of pollutant emissions can enterprises survive and develop better.

Li Wei, a professor at the School of Environment at Beijing Normal University: Social and economic development has entered the stage of green and low-carbon development. Ultra-low emissions provide a green and low-carbon development solution or model for the industrial development of these enterprises.

Through production capacity reduction, integration and reorganization, the number of steel smelting companies in Hebei Province has been reduced from 123 in 2011 to 39 in 2023; through ultra-low emission transformation, traditional steel companies have become the vanguard of green development. Walking into the HBIS Tangshan Iron and Steel New District located on the coast of the Bohai Sea, the materials transported directly enter the factory area through the closed belt corridor. In the intelligent unmanned closed material factory, the intelligent dry mist dust suppression system sprays white mist, keeping the Cleaning of the production environment of the material factory. Energy and environmental detection devices and visual monitoring systems transmit on-site data to the centralized control platform in real time to realize digital and intelligent remote centralized control of power, energy, and environmental protection.

my country is the world's largest manufacturing country. In the past, its coal-based energy structure, heavy chemical industry-based industrial structure, and highway-based transportation structure have resulted in high emissions of air pollutants. While improving air quality, the battle to protect blue skies has also become a battle to increase efficiency, forcing the transformation and upgrading of energy, industry and transportation structures. The new energy heavy-duty truck battery swapping station that has just been put into use in Xiongan New District, Hebei Province can meet the needs of more than 200 battery swaps per day. As of the end of April 2024, the number of new energy heavy-duty trucks in Hebei Province has reached 22,100, ranking first in the country. One person can achieve an annual emission reduction of approximately 12,000 tons of nitrogen oxides from diesel trucks.

Gu Biao, deputy director of the Motor Vehicle Pollution Prevention and Control Division of the Hebei Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment: We take key industries, key areas, and key regions as breakthrough points, and take application sites such as ports, airports, railways, and freight yards as key vehicle-using units as entry points to strive for heavy-duty The work of replacing diesel trucks with new energy sources is at the forefront of the country.

Liu Daogang, deputy director of the Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission: By the end of May, through the zero-carbon hydrogen energy method, we have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 13,456 tons. If this number is converted into tree planting, it is equivalent to planting 750,000 trees to reduce carbon dioxide for green. Made solid contributions.

Zhang Haolong, Deputy Director of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: In recent years, we have vigorously promoted "road-to-rail" in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Basically, the Bohai Rim Terminal and Coal Terminal in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei have realized all railway transportation. Our country has become The country with the fastest development of new energy heavy trucks in the world.

Looking to the sky for a blue sky requires not only adjustments to the industrial, transportation and energy structures, but also regional joint prevention and control. In the past, if a vehicle was found to have excessive exhaust gas, Beijing environmental law enforcement officials would generally impose fines and persuade them to return it. Now, according to relevant regulations, the ecological environment department will issue a reminder for maintenance and inspection. The vehicle must be repaired and inspected within 10 working days before it can be canceled. Otherwise, it will be canceled. Will be entered into the "blacklist" for excessive emissions. If a large truck in Tianjin or Hebei that exceeds the standard is inspected in Beijing, the ecological environment departments of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei can query the vehicle's excess standard information through the motor vehicle excess standard data platform. From now on, this car will be subject to intensive inspection no matter it travels to Beijing, Tianjin or Hebei.

Su Xuetian, leader of the Eighth Enforcement Detachment of the Beijing Comprehensive Ecological and Environmental Protection Law Enforcement Corps: In 2018, the exceedance rate of random tests on the road could still reach 15%. By 2023, the exceedance rate of random tests had dropped to about 2.5%. By January 2024 The data in April may reach 2%, and the emission status of vehicles on the road has improved significantly.

Among the local sources of PM2.5 in Beijing, motor vehicle emissions account for 46%, of which heavy-duty diesel vehicles are the top priority. The emissions of one heavy-duty diesel vehicle are equivalent to 200 cars. In order to further strengthen the emission management of heavy-duty diesel vehicles, Beijing has developed and built the country's first online monitoring platform for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, which can monitor 160,000 vehicles in real time.

Yang Yanyan, Director of the Pollution Source Office of the Beijing Ecological Environment Monitoring Center: This data can be processed to continuously track the actual conditions of vehicles running on the road. For vehicle exhaust emissions that exceed the standard, intelligent identification can be carried out through cloud big data processing. and call the police.

With the deepening of air pollution prevention and control work, our country has achieved a series of scientific research results in the field of air pollution prevention and control, and built the country's largest integrated air, space and ground three-dimensional observation network and data sharing platform; established the "monitoring and forecasting-consultation analysis-early warning and emergency response" "Supervision and enforcement-tracking and assessment" technical system for dealing with heavy pollution weather throughout the entire process. These achievements have strongly supported the completion of the "Ten Measures for the Atmosphere" and the "Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Blue Sky Defense War", and promoted significant improvements in regional air quality. It is worth noting that when it comes to reducing air pollution, the management methods are also more precise and scientific.

Starting from 2019, the country has implemented performance classification requirements for heavy pollution weather in key industries, including 39 industries with large pollution emissions. According to equipment and pollution prevention and control levels, enterprises have been divided into four levels ABCD. This also means that in heavy pollution weather When an early warning is issued, enterprises at different levels take different measures. Through "one enterprise, one policy", the impact on enterprise production is minimized.

At the end of last year, Tianjin issued an orange warning for heavy pollution, and the environmental protection department issued production restriction notices to enterprises in key areas under its jurisdiction one week in advance. A key foreign trade auto parts company located in the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone temporarily received a foreign trade order. According to the orange alert, the company should stop production of 6 injection molding machines. However, since the injection molding link is a core process of the company, once production is stopped, it will inevitably affect the orders of downstream vehicle companies. So the company applied to the local environmental protection department to replace the stopped production process. After research and judgment by the ecological and environmental protection departments at the two municipal levels, companies are allowed to temporarily adjust production equipment for gas-related processes to ensure the effectiveness of pollution response while ensuring the normal production of the company.

Since 2013, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has dropped by more than 60%, the average concentration of PM2.5 in key cities across the country has dropped by more than 50%, and the number of days with heavy pollution has dropped significantly. What is particularly noteworthy is that the significant improvement in air quality across the country since 2013 has been achieved under the backdrop of my country's steady economic growth, achieving a win-win situation for economic and social development and ecological and environmental protection.

Hu Jingnan, director of the Institute of Atmospheric Environment of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences: In the past decade, air quality improvement has played a very important role in the construction of ecological civilization.

Zhang Haolong, Deputy Director of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: We have made preliminary calculations. The process of air pollution control in the past ten years has directly stimulated social investment of about 4 trillion yuan, stimulated GDP growth of about 5 trillion yuan, and driven non-profit development. There are approximately 3 million agricultural jobs. By phasing out backward production capacity, we are releasing space for the development of new productive forces. What we want to achieve is a win-win situation of air quality improvement and high-quality economic development.

The battle to defend the blue sky is a protracted war with clear goals. After ten years of hard work, my country’s emissions of major air pollutants have been significantly reduced and air quality has been significantly improved. At the same time, it should also be noted that the current annual average concentration of fine particulate matter in my country is still high compared with European and American countries. The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China" released in January this year emphasized that by 2035, the concentration of fine particulate matter in the country will drop below 25 micrograms/cubic meter, and the air will always be fresh and the sky will always be blue. Looking to the future, if our country wants to further improve ambient air quality and better protect people's health, it will face greater pressure and challenges. We still need to keep the air pollution control goals clear, the direction unchanged, and the intensity undiminished.