Why did China's PM2.5 concentration increase in the first half of 2023? Explanation from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: Huang Runqiu | Epidemic | Pollutants | Days | Rise | Emissions | Concentration | China
On July 27th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. At the meeting, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu provided an answer on the reasons for the increase in PM2.5 concentration in China in the first half of 2023. He stated that there are three main reasons: firstly, the base for the same period in 2022 is relatively low. In the past three years, due to factors such as the COVID-19, China's air pollutant emissions have declined significantly. In the first half of 2022, China's PM2.5 concentration will be 32 micrograms/m3, the lowest in the same period of nearly eight years.
Secondly, since 2023, meteorological conditions have been extremely unfavorable. Due to the cyclical activity of the Asian winter monsoon, the number of sand and dust processes in China has significantly increased, reaching 37 in the first half of the year, of which 15 were large-scale sand and dust processes, the highest in the same period in 15 years. The sand and dust process has caused a loss of 5.4 percentage points in the national excellent days ratio and an increase of 1.4 percentage points in heavily polluted days.
Thirdly, emissions have increased. With the gradual recovery of economic activities after the epidemic, the production of high energy consuming and high emission industries such as metallurgy, building materials, and petrochemicals has increased year-on-year, and pollutant emissions have also increased accordingly.
Huang Runqiu emphasized that even so, compared to the same period in 2019 before the epidemic, China's PM2.5 concentration has still decreased by 15%, and the proportion of excellent days has increased by 1.3 percentage points. The overall trend of air quality is showing a significant improvement.