In the first three quarters, my country’s ambient air quality and surface water environmental quality continued to improve overall.

During a recent routine press conference held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, spokesperson Pei Xiaofei provided an update on the national air and surface water quality from January to September 2024. Pei emphasized that overall, the country’s environmental air quality and surface water quality have shown continuous improvement in the first three quarters of this year.

Pei noted that among 339 cities at the prefecture level and above, six key air pollutants have exhibited positive trends: the average PM2.5 concentration is at 27 micrograms per cubic meter, down 3.6% year-on-year; PM10 concentration is at 47 micrograms per cubic meter, a decline of 7.8%; ozone (O3) averages 147 micrograms per cubic meter, down 0.7%; nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is at 18 micrograms per cubic meter, a drop of 10.0%; sulfur dioxide (SO2) remains stable at 8 micrograms per cubic meter; while carbon monoxide (CO) averages 1.0 milligrams per cubic meter, also unchanged. Moreover, the proportion of days with good air quality in these cities reached 85.8%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the previous year, while days of severe pollution accounted for only 1.1%, a reduction of 0.7 percentage points.

Focusing on key regions, Pei reported that in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, the average PM2.5 concentration for the “2+36” cities stands at 39 micrograms per cubic meter, remaining stable year-on-year. The proportion of days with good air quality improved to 65.0%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points, and days of severe pollution decreased to 2.0%, down 1.9 percentage points. In the Yangtze River Delta, PM2.5 concentration rose to 32 micrograms per cubic meter, a 6.7% increase; the proportion of good air quality days decreased slightly to 79.2%, down 0.9 percentage points, with severe pollution days at 0.6%, down 0.3 percentage points. Meanwhile, in the Fenwei Plain, the average PM2.5 concentration decreased by 5.1% to 37 micrograms per cubic meter; the proportion of good air quality days rose to 65.9%, up 2.5 percentage points; and severe pollution days accounted for 1.1%, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points.

Regarding surface water quality, Pei highlighted that out of 3,641 national monitoring sections, 88.5% were rated as good (Class I-III), marking a 1.4 percentage point increase from the previous year, while the proportion of Category V or worse sections remained stable at 0.7%. In key river basins including the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, 90.0% of monitoring sections had good water quality, which represents an increase of 0.8 percentage points, with only 0.4% categorized as poor, a slight decline of 0.1 percentage points. Among 210 major lakes and reservoirs monitored, 78.6% were rated as good, up 4.0 percentage points, while those with poor water quality stayed at 4.3%, unchanged from last year.