According to a notice issued by Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), about 30 northern cities will be subject to stricter emission standards on air pollutants from Mar 1st, 2018.
The affected cities are called “cities on the air pollution passage of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region”. This concept was first brought up in Feb 2017 by MEP in the Working Plan in 2017 of Air Pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. The group of cities is also referred as “2+26 cities” because it includes:
2 municipalities directly under central government: Beijing and Tianjin;
26 other cities in 4 provinces:
Hebei Province: Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Langfang, Baoding, Cangzhou, Hengshui, Xingtai, Handan;
Shanxi Province: Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, Jincheng;
Shandong Province: Jinan, Zibo, Jining, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, Heze;
Henan Province: Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Puyang.
Figure 1: 2+26 cities
These cities will face stricter special emission limits from Mar 1st, 2018. The special emission limits apply to a total of 25 industries including thermal power, iron and steel, coking, chemical, non-ferrous metal industries, etc. Compared with corresponding national standards, the special emission limits are even harsher. Take the requirements on the coking industry and coal-fired furnace for example:
| Coking industry | ||
| National standard | Special emission limit | |
| PM in chimney (mg/m3) | 50 | 15 |
| SO2 (mg/m3) | 100 | 30 |
| NOx (mg/m3) | 800 | 150 |
| Coal-fired furnace | ||
| PM in chimney (mg/m3) | 80 | 30 |
| SO2 (mg/m3) | 400 | 200 |
| NOx (mg/m3) | 400 | 200 |
It is clear that compared with current national standards, the special emission limits tighten the requirements by over 50%. When MEP declared the victory of the “Air 10” campaign earlier this month, the spokesman mentioned a new 3-year campaign aimed at further improving air quality in priority areas. The special emission limits in the 2 municipalities and 26 cities (dubbed “2+26”) would be the first step of the new campaign. However, the policy also raised concerns among the industry. Some are claiming the special emission limits are set too high for current technical capacities. While some are worried that the policy will only drive the pollution enterprises to move to other areas and that will ultimately mean that total emission levels wouldn’t decrease on a national level.
