Exemptions for some air polluters this winter

The big environmental stories in the Chinese media this week (26 July-1 August)

China’s environmental regulator will exempt certain industrial facilities from its famously harsh measures to control winter pollution. The Ministry of Environment and Ecology will allow companies with higher standards of pollution control to continue production even during episodes of heavy air pollution. It will also delegateindustrial output limits to local governments. 

The categorisation of companies into a higher and a lower pollution standard is intended to incentivise factory upgrades which reduce emissions, sparking a positive cycle that will see “bad replaced with good,” the ministry commented. Cynics may also see it as a way to ensure that industrial production, central to China’s GDP growth, maintains pace throughout the winter. A Carbon Disclosure Project reportreleased this week on the global steel industry revealed China’s major steel companies lag behind many of their international peers on measures to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Delegating air pollution control measures to local governments may be bad news for air quality. Data indicates that output is their top priority: heavy industry output rose last winter, after declining the year before. Air pollution across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region saw a corresponding increase. On 1 August, industrial hub Shanxi province revealed that five of its cities saw air quality deteriorate in the first half of 2019 compared to 2018.

The current Air Pollution Action Plan will expire next year. Ministry officials will begin drafting air quality goals for their next five-year plan.