China's Tangshan to Launch Environmental Checks for Ten Months in 2019
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Tangshan city of China's largest steel producing province, Hebei is set to will launch ten-month inspections on environmental protection from late February to the end of the year i.e. till December, to ensure that all the city departments play a role in combating pollution, the Tangshan government said on its website on Wednesday 13 Feb'19.
The inspection will focus on key industries of steel, coke, electricity, chemicals, and continue to enforce coal-to-gas conversion. It will also target party committees and governments of all districts, as well as local leading groups of environmental protection.
Inspections will be carried out in two rounds in the first and second half of the year, with three checks in each round.
China's fight against pollution
China has vowed not to ease up when it comes to fighting pollution even amid an economic slump. However, rising emissions of lung-damaging smog last month suggests that some provinces could struggle to balance that goal with an upturn in industrial production. Average concentrations of small, hazardous particles known as PM2.5 in two major northern Chinese emissions control zones climbed 16% from a year earlier to 114 micrograms per cubic meter.
Most of the cities in China are aiming to cut pollution by 3% compared to 12 months earlier, far lower than last year's target of around 15%. Although the compliance period in China began a month earlier in October in 2018, when pollution is normally much lower, they are still struggling to meet targets.
Last year also in June 2018, China had launched environmental inspections from Jun'18 to Apr'19 targeting smog-prone Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and nearby areas along with Yangtze River Delta region, including Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, and some 11 cities in the northwestern provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.
The curbs and other anti-pollution measures have added to industry costs and disrupted growth. In Tangshan, GDP growth fell to 5.6% in the first quarter of 2018 (Jan-Mar) when winter production restrictions were most intense, dropping from 6.7% in the third quarter of 2017.
