Beijing: It seems there is some relief for people of China from the choking air pollution, as a new report suggests that the air quality may have modestly improved over the past 12 months.
According to the findings of the environmental group Greenpeace, the data collected from 360 Chinese cities show that air quality in coastal regions and in eastern cities such as Beijing has improved a bit.
The recent evaluation of pollution figures suggest that China's central and western regions including Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan still have the worst PM 2.5 levels.
Zhang Kai, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, was quoted as saying, “Our analysis shows that the government’s strict pollution control measures are working, at least enough to record a modest improvement on last year in certain cities such as Beijing. However this is the only silver lining in a situation where 90% of cities still record levels of pollution that far exceed China’s own air quality standards”.
Beijing has declared a war on pollution and to ensure this it has taken several measures. In early April, the Chinese vice minister for environmental protection announced a two-year inspection campaign to root out fake air quality data. Also, Beijing has introduced measures to limit the number of motorists on heavily polluted days and to impose criminal penalties on those who evade pollution monitoring systems.
According to the Greenpeace analysis, Beijing still ranks among the top 5 worst polluted regions in China. However, the concentration of PM 2.5 levels have improved.
(With Agency inputs)
