There is still a long way to go to complete the goal of basically eliminating heavily polluted weather in 2025.
Core reading
In the first quarter of this year, the meteorological conditions were unfavorable, and the emissions were also increasing substantially, especially in some places where the "two high" projects were launched, and some enterprises even illegally discharged pollutants. But it is still under control. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is confident to offset the uncertainty caused by economic growth and climate anomalies with greater emission reduction.
□ Our reporter Zhang Wei
"The sky turned orange." "Even the breath smells earthy." "Lost in the dust."
The strong sandstorm from March 19 to 23 was impressive, and then another round of sandstorm weather struck again. From April 1 to 3, there were dusty weather in southern and eastern Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, Ningxia and other places, and there were sandstorms in eastern and southern Xinjiang and parts of western Inner Mongolia.
"As of March 26, the proportion of excellent days in the country was lost by 5.4 percentage points, and the proportion of heavily polluted days increased by 1.2 percentage points." Liu Bingjiang, director of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said frankly that the air quality situation in the first quarter of this year is indeed not optimistic.
In addition to sandstorms, from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, there were 11 days of New Year’s haze in Shaanxi and Henan provinces. With the economic recovery after the epidemic, the heavily polluted weather … … All these mean that it will be a challenging task to continue to fight the "blue sky defense war" in the new year proposed by this year’s National Ecological and Environmental Protection Work Conference.
Strengthen the forecast of dust and dust in the new year
According to the information released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the severe sandstorm that occurred from March 19th to 23rd was the strongest and the most influential one this year, affecting 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China. The concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 in northern areas reached serious pollution, and the peak value of PM10 in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province exceeded 9,000 μ g/m3.
Affected by the dust storm process, 140 cities across the country have experienced dust storm pollution with severity or above this year, among which 131 cities have experienced serious pollution, the highest in five years.
However, one fact that must be admitted is — — Since the 21st century, the sandstorm weather in China has been gradually decreasing, and the high incidence period is still concentrated from March to May. It is understood that since March this year, the dust process has been slightly more than the same period of last year, twice more than the same period of ten years. Especially this time from March 19th to 23rd, the meteorological department classified it as a strong sandstorm (according to the visibility, the meteorological department divided the sandstorm into five levels: extremely strong sandstorm, strong sandstorm, sandstorm, sand blowing and floating dust).
It is worth noting that according to the meteorological department, the end time of dust is judged by visibility. However, according to the monitoring of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the impact of dust on air quality is longer.
Liu Bingjiang analyzed that since March this year, there are two reasons for the more dusty weather: First, the underlying surface is conducive to dust activities. In 2022, the precipitation in Mongolia was less than that in the same period of 20 years, and the vegetation coverage in the sand source area was poor. Since March this year, the temperature in the south of Mongolia and the northwest of China has been 5-8 degrees Celsius higher than normal, especially in early March, when an extremely rare warming weather occurred, which led to the rapid melting of frozen soil sand. At the same time, there was basically no precipitation process in the sand source area, and the surface was not covered with snow, which was beneficial to dust activities.
Second, meteorological conditions are conducive to dust transport. This year, the intensity of cyclone in Mongolia is relatively strong, and there are many cold air activities. In the process of cold air moving eastward and southward, strong winds provide favorable meteorological conditions for dust particles to hoist into the upper air. Under the action of northwest airflow in the upper air, a large number of dust particles are transported and settled downstream, superimposed on the local sand source in Inner Mongolia, affecting the northern part of China.
According to the statistics of researchers, in the past decade, the number of sandstorms in the Gobi region of Mongolia has increased by four times compared with that in the 1960s. This spring, the precipitation in the sand source area from southern Mongolia to central and western Inner Mongolia is less than normal, and the temperature is higher than normal, and it is affected by the phased southward movement of Mongolian cyclone, which is conducive to the formation of dust weather process.
"It is estimated that the number of dust processes in northern China is more than that in the same period of the last decade, and this year is a big year of dust." Liu Bingjiang said that next, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will work with the meteorological department to strengthen the air quality forecast, and when it is predicted that there may be dust, timely release information to remind the public to do a good job in health protection.
Enterprise illegal supervision is weak.
Another major event that aroused public concern about air quality this year was an 11-day New Year’s haze that occurred in China from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023.
This abnormal weather, which is concentrated in Shaanxi and Henan, has attracted great attention from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. "We started the emergency plan for heavy pollution, but the effect is not ideal, which is illogical. ‘ If something goes wrong, there must be a demon ’ There are some problems in coping with this pollution process. " Liu Bingjiang said.
It is worth noting that in the air quality ranking of key cities in China in 2022, Hebei has all dropped out of the bottom ten, and now there are four in the bottom ten, and three in Shaanxi.
Since February, Huang Runqiu, Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, have gone to Henan and Shaanxi to inspect enterprises in the way of "four noes and two straights". The surprise inspection achieved the expected results: 13 enterprises were inspected, and it was found that there were a large number of outstanding environmental violations such as abnormal operation of pollution control facilities, illegal discharge, falsification of production accounts, online monitoring and manual monitoring fraud. It also urged relevant provinces and cities to carry out investigations and resolutely investigate and deal with environmental violations according to law with a "zero tolerance" attitude. At present, 21 people have been detained in criminal detention and 11 in administrative detention, and related cases are still being further processed.
"Frequent corporate environmental violations have fully exposed the shortcomings of current air pollution prevention and control." Liu Bingjiang said that some enterprises ignore the law and break through the bottom line; In some places, the determination to tackle pollution is insufficient and the tenacity is insufficient; In some places, ecological environment supervision is superficial and weak.
To this end, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will focus on key areas and key time periods, combine punishment with help, and urge enterprises to shoulder the main responsibility of atmospheric governance. Including seriously investigating and dealing with violations of the ecological environment, organizing warning education based on the case, adhering to the problem orientation, and cracking down on violations of the ecological environment with a "zero tolerance" attitude, and also advising illegal enterprises to fear the law. If they dare to break the law, they will be punished; Strengthen the capacity building of ecological environmental supervision, guide all localities to promote the implementation of ecological environmental protection with the same responsibility of the party and government, and increase supervision and law enforcement; Help enterprises improve pollution control facilities and clean up and rectify a number of simple and inefficient pollution control facilities.
The inflection point is not present, and the pressure is still high.
This year, the economy has fully recovered, pollutant emissions have increased, and the pressure of air quality rebound has increased.
"In the first quarter of this year, the meteorological conditions were unfavorable, and the emissions were also increasing substantially, especially in some places ‘ Lianggao ’ Projects, some enterprises even illegally discharge pollutants. But it is still within the controllable range. " Liu Bingjiang said.
It is understood that after the Minister of Ecology and Environment adopted the "four no’s and two straights" inspection method this year, actions in this regard are being carried out all over the country. "Enterprises will fully open all pollution control facilities, and some emissions will be reduced. In addition, for some inefficient or ineffective pollution control facilities, we will carry out renewal actions this year, which will also promote emission reduction. Under the premise of our current forecast of economic growth and emission reduction, we are confident to further improve air quality. " Liu Bingjiang said.
"However, the most difficult thing to grasp is the meteorological conditions." Liu Bingjiang explained, "It exceeded our expectations in the first quarter, and it is expected that the climate situation will change from La Nina to El Niñ o in autumn and winter this year, which is not conducive to cold air activities and pollution diffusion. How much effect this has on offsetting emission reductions is still uncertain. However, we are confident that we can offset the uncertainty caused by economic growth and climate anomalies with greater emission reduction. "
Liu Bingjiang said that at present, it is mainly the heavily polluted weather that affects people’s sense of blue sky, so the CPC Central Committee and the State Council require that the heavily polluted weather be basically eliminated in 2025. Compared with 2013, the days of heavy pollution in China have been greatly reduced, but now the results of air quality improvement are not stable enough. The turning point from quantitative change to qualitative change has not yet appeared, and the overall situation has not been shaken off by meteorological conditions. When encountering unfavorable meteorological conditions, heavy pollution weather is still frequent, especially since this year.
In November last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport and other departments, issued the Action Plan for Eliminating Heavy Pollution Weather. It is required to strictly control the emission increment of pollutants, resolutely curb the blind development of the "two high" projects, and withdraw from the backward production capacity of key industries according to laws and regulations; Strengthening the attack according to local conditions, the focus of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas and Fenwei Plain is to optimize the industrial structure and layout; Do a good job in dealing with heavy polluted weather and strengthen the capacity building of air quality forecasting; Continue to improve the emergency emission reduction list, and promote the performance grading and differentiated control of key industries; Strengthen joint prevention and control of regional air pollution; Strengthen law enforcement supervision, strict daily supervision and enforcement, and mobilize outstanding backbone law enforcement personnel of the national environmental protection system to carry out intensive supervision and assistance in key areas.
"The goal of basically eliminating heavy pollution days in China in 2025 is to control it within 1%. Due to the insufficient imbalance of air pollution control in various places, the control objectives are different. There are also uncertainties such as rapid economic growth, abnormal climate, large-scale burning of straw and high-intensity large-scale discharge of fireworks and firecrackers. We will strictly control the increment, reduce the stock and accurately and scientifically deal with the uncertainty of heavy pollution process, and strive to achieve the goal." Liu Bingjiang said.