Environmental Effective Assessment of Control Measures Implemented by Clean Air Action Plan (2013–2017) in Beijing, China

Abstract

The Beijing government initiated the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) in 2013. Through a series of actions to control air pollution, the emissions of major atmospheric pollutants are reduced to improve urban air quality. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of control measures taken to mitigate atmospheric pollution, we investigated and analyzed the implementation of the CAAP in Beijing from 2013 to 2017, estimating the corresponding reduction in emissions of major air pollutants. The contribution of different control measures to the improvement of air quality was quantified and the experiences of managing air pollution were summarized, which provided references for the continuous improvement of air quality in Beijing and the surrounding areas. The results showed that the emission of SO 2 , NO X , PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and VOCs from air pollution source have been decreased by 119,924, 116,091, 116,810, 46,652, and 97,267 tons after the implementation of the CAAP. The sum of these five air pollutants emissions have been reduced by 39% in 2017 compared with 2013, the largest decrease in SO 2 emissions was 87%, which was related to the vigorous control on coal-fired combustion. The control measure with the greatest contribution to decreasing the ambient PM 2.5 concentration was the clean energy transformation of coal-fired power plants, which contributed 27% of the total reduced concentration and 6.1 µg/m 3 of the average PM 2.5 concentration reduction in Beijing. Clean Residential coal use also significantly decreased the PM 2.5 concentration by 5.4 µg/m 3 , which was 23% of the total reduction. In addition, the industrial restructuring and the management of automotive vehicle use and dust could also contribute to efficiently reducing the PM 2.5 concentration by 4.0, 3.2, and 2.3 µg/m 3 , or 17%, 14%, and 10% of the total reduction, respectively. Due to the implementation of control measures of Clean Air Action Plan, the energy and industrial structure of Beijing have been adjusted and optimized, leading to the reduction of pollutant emissions, which is the secret of urban long-term air quality improvement.

Regional characteristics of atmospheric δ34S-SO42− over three parts of Asia monitored by quartz wool-based passive samplers

“…Considering the significant overlap of the δ 34 S values between biogenic sulfur and coal combustion (Liu et al, 1996;Maruyama et al, 2000;Norman et al, 1999;Shang et al, 2016;Xue et al, 2020;Yetang et al, 1993;Zhang et al, 1995;Zhao et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2018), there may be a large uncertainty in identifying the contributions of these two sources. Based on global sulfur budgets, biogenic sulfur emissions from terrestrial surfaces accounts for approximately 1% of atmospheric sulfur (Lei et al, 1997).…”

Improving NO<sub>X</sub> emissions in Beijing using network observations and a novel perturbed emissions ensemble

“…https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-161 6 NOX and TVOC emissions in Beijing were reported to have decreased substantially between 2013 (the year of the emission estimates) and 2016, when the observations were made (Cheng et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2020). In the surrounding provinces, NOX emissions also revealed a downward trend, while no apparent trend has been identified for TVOC emissions (Zheng et al, 2018).…”

“…In addition to spatial disparities, emissions from individual source sectors also showed different patterns. In Beijing, for example, vehicle emission control contributed the most NOX reductions, while the largest TVOC decrease was found in the petrochemical industry (Cheng et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2020). Hence, uncertainties associated with the NOX emissions from each sector in the base emissions were estimated separately.…”

Trends in Air Pollutant Concentrations and the Impact of Meteorology in Shandong Province, Coastal China, during 2013-2019

“…For example, severe air pollution events occurred in North China during January 2020, with the daily average concentration of PM2.5 exceeding 200 μg/m 3 , although the pollutant emissions decreased due to the Spring Festival holiday and coronavirus disease outbreak (Wang et al, 2020d;Zhang et al, 2020a). Several studies have explored the contribution of inter-annual meteorological changes to air pollutant concentration reductions (Hong et al, 2019;Vu et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020b). The decrease in the PM2.5 concentration due to emissions reduction increased annually from 2013-2017 in key regions of China, especially in…”