Mar 15, 2016 China’s environment minister Chen Jining recently confirmed that his ministry’s crackdown on pollution is showing results.
Speaking to journalist, Chen said:
“Has there been a difference or not? We’re looking at three figures, to see if we’ve achieved what we are hoping for, or that is to say the change we are predicting. First is the number of good days (where the pollution is low), second is the number of days with heavy pollution, the third is the PM 2.5 concentration for the whole year. Everyone can see that since the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan these three metrics have all had active changes. So we can see that we are improving, we can see a very clear trend,”
Commenting on the importance of curbing pollution at the expense of revenue, Chen went on to say:
“There are some people who think that protecting the environment is a burden, will affect the GDP, and affect the development, so there is a problem that these people think they can’t, or they wouldn’t, or they are afraid to (take measures to protect the environment). Our economy has now entered a new normal, which is to transform from extensive growth in the past, from chasing quantity to striving for quality,”