Air quality in Beijing improved in 2015 despite several “red alert” warnings issued by the government for dangerous smog conditions, officials said Monday.
The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau reported that the concentration of particulate matter—a mixture of pollutants that harm human health—in the city declined by more than 6% between 2014 and 2015, according to a China Daily report. Air quality exceeded the national standard more than half the year and the improvement exceeded their target of reducing pollution by 5%, officials said.
The news comes as China continues to face internal pressure to reduce smog and make cities more livable. The concentration of particulate matter still remains at more than eight times the level deemed acceptable for human health by the World Health Organization. Recent research has shown that smog in China contributes to more than 1.5 million premature deaths each year.
A warning system launched in the city two years ago takes cars off the road and mandates the closing of factories to stem the most dangerous smog conditions. Changing weather patterns may have also contributed to last year’s improvement.
Read More: China Shows It’s Getting Serious About Climate Change
- How to Help Victims of the Texas School Shooting
- TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2022
- What the Buffalo Tragedy Has to Do With the Effort to Overturn Roe
- Column: The U.S. Failed Miserably on COVID-19. Canada Shows It Didn't Have to Be That Way
- N.Y. Will Soon Require Businesses to Post Salaries in Job Listings. Here's What Happened When Colorado Did It
- The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2022
- ‘We Are in a Moment of Reckoning.’ Amanda Nguyen on Taking the Fight for Sexual Violence Survivors to the U.N.