Air pollution report says China too slow in reforming economy

CHINA’S energy-hungry, high-polluting industries continued to grow too fast in 2013, putting “huge pressure” on the environment and causing air quality to get worse, the country’s pollution agency said yesterday.

Premier Li Keqiang “declared war” on pollution in a major policy address earlier this month, but China has long struggled to strike a balance between protecting the environment and keeping up economic growth, Reuters reported.

China is still too slow when it comes to reforming its resource-intensive economy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement to mark a report on pollution in 74 Chinese cities.

“The pace of restructuring and upgrading industries has slowed, the mode of development remains crude, and emissions of atmospheric pollutants have long exceeded environmental capacity,” it said.

Just three of the 74 cities studied fully complied with state pollution standards in 2013, according to the ministry.

Rapid urbanization played a role, it said, bringing dust from new housing and road building, while more traffic boosted emissions.

Slower wind speeds than usual in northern China were an additional contributing factor last year.

Beijing, neighboring Tianjin City and cities in north China’s Hebei Province were hardest hit by air pollution in 2013.

Of the 10 cities with the most serious problems, seven were in Hebei, including the worst three — Xingtai, Shijiazhuang and Handan.

Just three of China’s 74 major cities enjoyed good air last year, the ministry said — Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, Zhoushan in east China’s Zhejiang Province and Lhasa, capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

East China’s Yangtze River Delta also faced severe air pollution with 24 out of 25 cities showing excessive PM2.5 levels. Shanghai failed to meet air quality standards on 67.4 percent of days and had 23 days that were severely polluted.

In the industrialized Zhujiang River Delta region, the nine major cities, including Shenzhen and Zhuhai, had PM2.5 readings at excessive levels.