Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in collaboration with the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, released the “2022 China Ecological Environment Status Bulletin” on May 29th. The report shows that the national ecological environment quality has maintained an improvement trend, and the annual improvement goal has been successfully achieved. Mainly manifested as two “improvements” and four “stability”.

Firstly, the air quality is steadily improving. The average concentration of PM2.5 in 339 prefecture level and above cities nationwide is 29 micrograms per cubic meter, and comparable data has achieved a “seven consecutive drops” since the 13th Five Year Plan. The average concentration of six major pollutants has consistently reached the standard for three consecutive years. The proportion of days with severe or above pollution is 0.9%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.4 percentage points, and for the first time, it has decreased to within 1%.

Secondly, the quality of surface water environment continues to improve. The proportion of sections with excellent water quality (Class I-III) is 87.9%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points year-on-year, achieving a “seven consecutive increases” since the 13th Five Year Plan; The proportion of inferior Class V sections is 0.7%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5 percentage points.

Thirdly, the overall stability of seawater quality in the jurisdictional waters. The overall trend of improving seawater quality in coastal waters has been maintained, with the proportion of excellent (Class I and Class II) water quality reaching 81.9%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.

Fourthly, the overall stability of the soil environment. The safe utilization rate of agricultural land remains above 90%. The safe utilization of key construction land has been effectively guaranteed.

Fifth, the overall stability of urban acoustic environment quality. The total compliance rates of the sound environment quality in the functional area during the day and at night were 96.0% and 86.6%, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 0.6 percentage points and 3.7 percentage points.

Sixth, the overall stability of the natural ecological situation. The Ecological Quality Index (EQI) value is 59.6, and the comprehensive evaluation of ecological quality is classified as “Class II”, which is good and has no significant change compared to 2021.

Meanwhile, according to the latest monitoring data from January to April this year, the foundation for stable and improving ecological environment is not yet stable, and the difficulty of continuously improving environmental quality is increasing: the average concentration of PM2.5 is 42 micrograms/cubic meter, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year; The proportion of excellent days was 80.4%, a year-on-year decrease of 4.7 percentage points.

Source: Environmental Protection Association