19/03/2019
Beijing, take a deep breath.
Air pollution can be considered one of the biggest problems faced by metropolises worldwide. The situation can be considered so precarious that some governments even conceal the true damage caused by harmful gases in the atmosphere.
But like every big problem, this one is accompanied by a great solution. That’s the case of Beijing. The Chinese capital has made such a marked improvement in air pollution that the UN said the process should provide a model for other heavily polluted cities.
The process, which lasted more than 20 years, is documented in a report by a UN environmental team and Chinese camp officials. It is named “A Review of 20 Years Air Pollution Control In Beijing”. The report was compiled over two years and covers Chinese efforts from 1998 to the end of 2017.
The reduction progress was reasonable from 1998 until 2012, but it was with the Clean Air Action Plan in effect since 2013 that the damage really began to decline. From 2013 to 2017 the amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere was reduced in very high percentages, with some gases being reduced by more than 80%.
The report highlights the reduction of harmful gases (from 25 to 83% depending on the gas), the measures of control, monitoring and reduction of atmospheric pollution and the fact that even with such effective actions, the carbon concentration in the atmosphere still exceeds the recommended by WHO.
Yet both Chinese and United Nations officials look to the city’s atmospheric future with hope.
Read the full original story: https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/beijing-air-improvements-provide-model-other-cities
Read the report: https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27645/airPolCh_EN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y