Beijing air quality is improving

The capital city of China, Beijing is known for its poor air quality and despite the amount of effort done by the authority, there are still lots to be improved. However, its environmental authorities told reporters that Beijing's air quality had improved in 2015 compared to 2014 even though the city did set two red alerts for pollution.

According to the latest data released by the authority, Beijing's concentration level of PM2.5 fell to only 81 micrograms per cubic meter last year. The data means that its air quality is improving by 6 percent on average compared to 2014 pollution and it is also 10 percent better compared to 2013.

According to the ABC News, China had introduced a national and local target for its air quality index to invite its citizens together to fight air pollution. Among its boldest move is replacing the current coal-fired boiler with gas powered facilities stage by stage as the boiler is known to have been polluting the air in the country.

The moves will see China's energy produced from coal mines to be reduced from 64.4 percent to 62.2 percent for this year.

Besides that, authorities also have been moving and even closing factories that are known as a serious polluting offender. This is in accordance with the government plan to reduce more pollution annually.

Although the improvement is significant, the pollution index is still far from the national standard. The Business Standard reported that current average reading is still 1.3 times higher compared to the goal set. However, Beijing also managed to record 186 days with air quality in accordance with the national standard.  

According to the research done by Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre (BMEMC), heavy pollution is a seasonal phenomenon in Beijing. Its director, Zhang Dawei said that "Heavy air pollution mainly happens in autumn and winter, particularly in winter, when coal burning significantly increases."

According to the Vice News, for last year, Beijing first pollution warning was during the beginning of December restricting the outdoor activity of the people living there. During the period, schools were advised to be closed, outdoor construction were stopped and there was also a limit on the amount of cars permitted into the city.

The city environmental protection bureau is optimistic that the air quality will keep on improving for 2016. In a statement released by the bureau, "number of days of most serious PM2.5 pollution is falling each year" hence it will continue to improve.