RankingEastern Chinese Cities by their"Clean Air" Actions

Preface

Figure 1: Global PM2.5 Aerosol Vertical Accumulation Distribution Map[1]

Asatellite mapping analysis of PM2.5 concentration, aspublished by the US NASA lab, indicates the coastal areas ofEastern China as themost affected by PM2.5 pollution in the world. According to statistics from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, cities in three regions—Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Jing-Jin-Ji Region(Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei)have seen over 100 smoggy days each year, with fine particle concentration two to four times the level recommended by WHO Air Quality Guidelines[2]. This comes as a result of a continuous increase in coal burning and vehicleusage. Investigations by the Chinese Academy of Engineering reveal the above-mentioned air pollution of these cities are attributable to both soot and vehicle tail gas. Because of their insatiable demand for energy, these cities have been hit hard by air pollution[3].

Jing-Jin-Ji region, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta covers three direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai) and four provinces (Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong), and is the most densely-populated and economically developed area in China. In 2010,its population accounted for 27% of the total in China and its GDP represented 43% of the national GDP. Itattracted a huge amount of public attention from the general public and media during the PM2.5 crisis of late last year. Public outcry for transparency prompted Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities to commit to disclosure of air quality monitoring data and map out a plan called "Clean Air" Action. And since polluted air is likely to migrate to other cities, individual cities must join forces in order to improve air quality. A joint action plan for different administrative divisions and regions to cooperate with tackling air pollution is urgently required.

In the six months thatfollowed the public discussion around PM2.5, Greenpeaceselected28 National Environmental Protection Priority Cities as defined by Ministry of Environmental Protection in three key regions and ranked them based on their current air quality, "clean air"action plans and targetscommittedto by their local governments. We also analyzed the huge challenges these regions are facing in environmental protection by examining the major sources of pollution of these cities. Greenpeace also hopes that cities within these three regions (including direct-controlled municipalities) along with provincial governments will createjoint efforts to reduceair pollution and demonstrate enoughdetermination and persistence to makeclean air a reality inthe near future.

  1. City Ranking of Air Quality

We have ranked the state of air quality of 28 citiesinkey regionsaccording to National Statistics of Air Quality of Environmental Protection Priority Cities, released by Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2010. Annual average PM2.5 levels of these cities cannot yet be directly acquired due to monitoring and information disclosure of PM2.5having only just begunin China. Numerous findings have indicated that the proportion of PM2.5 within PM10stands at 50-80%. Thus, statistics of annual average PM10 concentration of cities released by Ministry of Environmental Protection have been used as a reference for the level ofPM2.5 of the 28 cities in thesethree regions[4].

In Table1which ranksthe annual average PM10 concentration of 28 environmental protection priority cities in 2010, one can see that the region with the lowest level of inhalable particles is the sixPearl Delta cities (marked blue); meanwhile the air quality of 15 environmental protection priority cities in Yangtze Delta, which has been marked as pink,have been deemed unsatisfactory. Shanghai on the other hand has fared better than others in the Yangtze River Delta region. And significant variations have beenfound among seven cities in the Jing-Jin-Ji (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) region, which has been marked purple. Beijing, Hangzhou and Nanjing, are all severely affected by particle pollution, three cities most affected byinhalable particles.

Also of note is the particle concentration of 28 cities in the Jing-Jin-Ji region, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl Delta River, which is two to six times the WHO level. They all fail to live up to the new, national grade-one standard of air quality announcedin 2012. Other than the cities of the Pearl Delta, most cities in the Yangtze Delta and Jing-Jin-Ji region are not even up to the national grade-two air quality standards. Clearlythere's a long way to go before we see significant improvement of the country's air quality.

To observe whether the cities' air quality is improving, we compared the PM10 concentration of the 28 cities for the first half of 2011[5] to the data of 2010. We found that two fifths of the national environmental protection priority cities in the three regions (11 cities) was lower than the annual average in 2010,indicating some small progress, while the remaining 17 cities sawan increase in inhalable particle concentration over the same period; pollutants in Zhuhai, Shanghai, Huzhou, Yangzhou and other cities increased by 20%.

Table 1: Ranking Air Quality of Cities in Jing-Jin-Ji Region, Yantgtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta[6]

Ranking within the three regions / PM10 level national rankings
in 2010 / City / Average PM10 levels in 2010 (ug/m3) / %Exceeded PM10 compared to national IIstandards (75ug/m3)[7] / %ExceededPM10 compared to national Istandards (40ug/m3) / %Exceeded PM10 compared to WHO standards (20ug/m3) / % Change for the first half of 2011
1 / 2 / Zhan Jiang / 45 / —— / 13% / 225% / -6.50
2 / 4 / Zhu Hai / 49 / —— / 23% / 245% / 25.6
3 / 6 / Shen Zhen / 57 / —— / 43% / 285% / 15.4
4 / 9 / Shan Tou / 60 / —— / 50% / 300% / 0
5 / 11 / Qinghuangdao / 64 / —— / 60% / 320% / -1.40
6 / 20 / Guangzhou / 69 / —— / 73% / 345% / 0
7 / 26 / Shanguan / 74 / 6% / 85% / 370% / 7.4
8 / 34 / Shanghai / 79 / 13% / 98% / 395% / 25.3
9 / 43 / Baoding / 84 / 20% / 110% / 420% / -5
10 / 45 / Tangshan / 85 / 21% / 113% / 425% / -12.9
11 / 46 / Wenzhou / 85 / 21% / 113% / 425% / 13.5
12 / 48 / Huzhou / 86 / 23% / 115% / 430% / 25.3
13 / 53 / Wuxi / 88 / 26% / 120% / 440% / 12.1
14 / 54 / Xuzhou / 88 / 26% / 120% / 440% / 10.8
15 / 61 / Handan / 90 / 29% / 125% / 450% / -4.7
16 / 62 / Suzhou / 90 / 29% / 125% / 450% / 0
17 / 63 / Lianyuangang / 90 / 29% / 125% / 450% / 19.8
18 / 70 / Shaoxing / 95 / 36% / 138% / 475% / -1
19 / 72 / Tianjin / 96 / 37% / 140% / 480% / -3.1
20 / 73 / Yangzhou / 96 / 37% / 140% / 480% / 20.6
21 / 74 / Ningbo / 96 / 37% / 140% / 480% / 12.6
22 / 76 / Changzhou / 97 / 39% / 143% / 485% / 1
23 / 77 / Nantong / 97 / 39% / 143% / 485% / -1
24 / 78 / Zhenjiang / 97 / 39% / 143% / 485% / 10.6
25 / 82 / Shi Jiazhuang / 98 / 40% / 145% / 490% / 0
26 / 83 / Hangzhou / 98 / 40% / 145% / 490% / -3.9
27 / 104 / Nanjing / 114 / 63% / 185% / 570% / -6.6
28 / 109 / Beijing / 121 / 73% / 203% / 605% / -4.9

(Blue represents Pearl River Delta Cities. Pink represents Yangtze River Delta Cities. Purple represents Jing-Jin-Ji Region Cities. The green line represents the annual average limit of PM10for the new national grade-one standard. The orange line represents limitsfor the grade-two standard.)

2. City Ranking for "Clean Air" Action

The smoggy weather that blanketed half of China in the winter of 2011 has sparked a huge debate overPM2.5 amongst the general public. Public discontent over air quality and a demand for transparency of government information has urged local governments to speed upthe disclosure of PM2.5readings.

However, information disclosure is simply the first step in the hugemarathon that isair quality improvement. The challenge to improve air quality is so big that very strong commitments are required from these cities; it needs a legally binding action plan. Also important is a real shift from end of pipe pollutant control to controlling the source of pollutant, and an interdepartmental pollution prevention and control mechanism is required, thereby facilitating the implementation of any"clean air" action.

Rating"clean air" actionsof 28 cities fromfour different respects below (see Table 2).

  1. Air Quality Improvement Targets:

Three key indicatorswere used here: whether or not a clean air action plan has been released, whether or not anair quality improvement target has been specifiedandwhether or not a timeline has been detailed.

China'sAir Pollution Prevention and Control Lawstipulate that for a city with substandard air quality, its government must have a legally binding plan to gradually improve air quality in orderto meet this standard. After searching the websites of the above municipal governments we've found that until now none of them have formulated such a legally binding plan to ensure their air quality meetsthe standard, although these provinces and cities all have an emissions reduction and energy savings plan. Then we searched for ad hoc air pollution treatment plans formulated by these cities and provinces to which they belong and found theirprograms have been given various names, such as the "clean air plan", "blue sky program" and "comprehensive air pollution treatment plan". See attachment for plans and policy documents related to this.

The improvement of air quality not only requires a clear target, but also concerted action by regions, in contrast to isolated efforts made by individual cities. We found only Zhejiang and Guangdong has introduced a unified regional air pollution treatment scheme by their provincial governments and municipal governments.

With regard to the air quality improvement target, these cities have not yet set specific targets and timelines for the improvement of air quality as demanded by the public, although they all have targets for total amount of pollution emission reduction. Thus we have also chosen another two indicators:is there a quantitative target set for the improvement of air quality?Thismeans when pollution concentration can be reducedby what percentage. Additionally weincluded whether or not a timeline has been createdto meet the standard,which means by when they pledge to meet the national standards– an important commitment to public demand.

We found only Beijing had given 2030 as a clear timeline to meet the national standard. Wuxi and Hangzhou has proposed a PM10 concentrationdecreasing target,while the other cities had set no specific timelines. Obscure illustrations of target setting – "significant decrease of PM2.5 since 2013", "achieve functional area standard bythe end of 'twelve-five'"- are also used by some cities. To some extent this shows that local governments still lackacommitment toimproveair quality.

  1. Control on Pollution from Coal Combustion

With regards to actions taken to improve air quality, we are mainly focusing on two aspects: treatment of pollution from coal combustion in industry, electricity use, heating and other sectors, as well as emissions fromvehicles.

The dominance of coal in China's energy mix is the major cause of high air pollution emissions. Coal combustion from all over the country contributes to 70-80% of the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. End-of pipe treatment of coal pollution in Eastern China beganearly and has shown up as comparatively betterlevelsof air pollution comparedto other regions[8]. Thus, there's limited space for further end of pipe pollution controlimprovement.Currently coal combustion control measures taken by most of these cities include designation of zero combustion zones within urban area, tightening approval of newly built coal-fired power plants and heavy industry programs, as well as enhancing the mechanisms used to control the pollution from the current coal combustion facilities. But to solve the current regional compound pollution, there's no escaping the necessity of putting a cap oncoal consumption. This will assist in achievingzero growth of coal consumption or even reduction.

Thereforewhetherthereexistslimits on total coal consumptionhas been used as the most critical indicator of pollution control action. Despite the Ministry of Environmental Protection deliveringa proposal that Jing-Jin-Ji Region, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta should set limits on total coal consumptionthe plan is yet to be approved by the State Council. PresentlyBeijing has announced a coal consumption reduction targetof20 million tons in the coming five years and Shanghai, Wuxi, Changzhou and Ningbo have also put forth absolute targets to limit the increase of coal consumption. The remaining cities haven't put forwardany specific targets to control total coal consumption.

  1. Efforts to ControlVehicle Pollution

Two key indicatorsare usedhere: whether or not a target has been set to phase out yellow-label vehicles, whether or not measures have been taken to slow down increase of vehicles.

Most of the cities in Jing-jin-ji Region, Yangtze Delta and Pearl Delta have put forward a timeline to fully phase out yellow-labelvehicles (heavy pollutingvehicles). Beijing is the first city that has adoptedNational-V emission standards for vehicles in 2012. Beijing and Shanghai introduced different mechanisms to alleviate rapid growth of the total number of vehicles. However, given most of the cities haven't curbed the growth of vehicles, they are expected to continue to increase rapidly over the next five years. Thereforethe possibility of effective control of pollution from vehicleemissions remains unclear.

  1. Disclosing PM2.5 Data

We found that of these 28 cities, 15 Yangtze River Delta environmental protection priority cities had all disclosed their daily average of PM2.5 levels by mid-May this year. Of them, nine cities in Jiangsu even managed hourly PM2.5 data. The Pearl River Delta unified plansforPM2.5 data disclosure had yet to include observation stationsin Zhanjiang, Shaoguan, and Shantou. The Jing-Jin-Ji region performed the least satisfactory in terms of information disclosure. Except Beijing, none of the other six cities (including Tianjin) within the region haddisclosedtheirdata.

Table 2: Ranking of Cities by"Clean Air"Actions

City / Clean air action plan announced?
(1 point) / Air quality improvement target?
(1 point) / Timeline to meet standard(1 point) / Coal cap
(3 points) / Phasing out yellow label vehicle target
(1 point) / Vehicle increase control
(2 points) / PM2.5 data disclosure
(1 point) / Total score
Beijing / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / 10
Shanghai / No / No / No / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / 7
Wuxi / Yes / Yes / No / Yes / No / No / Yes / 6
Changzhou / Yes / No / No / Yes / No / No / Yes / 5
Ningbo / No / No / No / Yes / No / No / Yes / 4
Shenzhen / Yes / No / No / No / Yes / No / Yes / 3
Suzhou / Yes / No / No / No / Yes / No / Yes / 3
Nantong / Yes / No / No / No / Yes / No / Yes / 3
Nanjing / Yes / No / No / No / Yes / No / Yes / 3
Hangzhou / Yes / Yes / No / No / No / No / Yes / 3
Zhuhai / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Guangzhou / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Xuzhou / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Lianyungang / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Yangzhou / No / No / No / No / Yes / No / Yes / 2
Wenzhou / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Huzhou / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Shaoxing / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 2
Zhanjiang / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / No / 1
Shaoguan / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / No / 1
Shantou / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / No / 1
Baoding / No / No / No / No / Yes / No / No / 1
Handan / Yes / No / No / No / No / No / No / 1
Shijiazhuang / No / No / No / No / Yes / No / No / 1
Tianjin / No / No / No / No / Yes / No / No / 1
Zhenjiang / No / No / No / No / No / No / Yes / 1
Qinhuangdao / No / No / No / No / No / No / No / 0
Tangshan / No / No / No / No / No / No / No / 0

After considering the above sevenindicators with regards to "Clean Air"actions made by local governments, Beijing stands out in terms of both determination and willingness to takeaction among the cities of the three regions in Eastern China. Some cities in the Yangtze River region also had a fairly progressiveset of actions in the pipeline, such as Shanghai and Wuxi, but regional cooperation in the region is still lagging behind. The Pearl River Delta hadcomparatively good coordination within the region, however till now we can't see a clear target on capping coal consumption or vehicle increase. Whilethe remaining cities in Jing-Jin-Ji region (with Beijing the exception) doing the poorest.

  1. Challenges Facing Air Quality Improvement

Key to improving urban air quality is reducing airpollutants. Numerous research findings have indicated that the increasedof secondary particles in PM2.5 is linked toincreases in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide[9]. According to statistics from the Ministry of Environment Protection, major air pollution emissions in China are huge - 22.678 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 22.736 million tons of nitrogen dioxide per year -landingChina at number one in the world. Industrial dust emissions have reached 12.778 million tons and all these air pollutants have overwhelmed the nation's environmental capacity[10]. Jing-Jin-Ji region, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta are hubs of economic activity and are where pollution emissions concentrate in China. In these regions the problem of air pollution is more prominent.While the above regions account for 6% of the area of China,their combined sulfur dioxide accounts for 20% of the total in China,and nitrogen oxide accounts for 28% of the total[11]. See Table3for the emission intensity of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide within different administrative areas of these regions.

Table 3: Emission Intensity of Pollutants in Eastern China[12]

Area / Emission Intensity of Sulfur Dioxide in 2010 (Ton/Square Kilometer) / Emission Intensity of Nitrogen Oxide in 2010 (Ton/Square kilometer)
Beijing / 6.19 / 11.79
Tianjin / 21.64 / 30.91
Hebei / 7.57 / 9.02
Jing-Jin-Ji / 8.17 / 10.34
Shanghai / 43.97 / 76.38
Jiangsu / 10.86 / 14.72
Zhejiang / 6.84 / 8.53
Yangtze River Delta / 9.84 / 13.45
Guangdong / 4.66 / 7.35
National Average Level / 2.36 / 2.37

Figure 2: Pollutant emission intensity

Table 3 shows the intensity of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in Shanghai ranks thehighest - 25 times the national level. Tianjin ranks second while Guangdong's emission intensity is the lowest, but is still approximately three times the national level. Higher intensity indicates a tougher battle in the fight against air pollution.

The above pollutants primarily come from two sources, which are coal combustion and vehicles emission. Anoverreliance on coal is the major reason why air pollution emissions are so high. Coal combustion contributes to 80% of total sulfur dioxide emissions and 70% of total nitrogen oxide emissions. As China's pushto urbanizespeeds up, recent years haveseenan increase in the number of vehicles on the roads,becoming a major contributor to nitrogen oxide. In 2010, nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicles accounted for 26% of the total in China. Thus our analysis on the future challengeof improvingair quality factors in coal combustion and the vehicle numbers.

A. Coal Consumption

Table 4: Coal consumption intensity in three regions

Area / Coal Consumption in 2010
(10,000 tons) / Coal Consumption Intensity Per Unit Area in 2010
(ton/km2) / Coal Consumption in 2015[13] (10,000 tons) / Coal Consumption Intensity in 2015
(ton/km2)
Shanghai / 5876 / 9326 / 5876 / 9327
Jiangsu / 23100 / 2310 / 25411 / 2541
Zhejiang / 13950 / 1395 / 15345 / 1534
Yangtze River Delta / 42926 / 2081 / 46631 / 2260
Tianjin / 4807 / 4370 / 5528 / 5025
Beijing / 2635 / 1568 / 1500 / 893
Hebei / 27465 / 1446 / 31584 / 1662
Jing-Jin-Ji / 34906 / 1603 / 38612 / 1773
Guangdong / 15984 / 888 / 15984 / 888
National Average Level / 342.9