CRI听力:China's Air Showing Signs of Improvement

While conditions in the capital and other parts of northern China may not reflect it this week, figures are suggesting the air this year in Beijing has improved.

The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau is reporting that through the first 9-months of this year, all major pollutants being recorded by the city's 35 air-quality monitoring centers have seen declines.

Yi Bo with the Bureau's air management office says this includes a nearly 20-percent drop in PM2.5 levels, and a 40-percent decline in sulfur dioxide readings compared with last year.

"As a responsible government, we need to be constantly pushing to improve the quality of our city's environment. This is a process that will be sustained in the long term. Our aim is to reduce PM2.5 pollution levels by 25-percent in 2017 compared to those of 2012 levels."

Despite the promises, and the overall reduction of pollution levels, when bad-air days hit Beijing, it becomes an instant topic of conversation.

"I think things would improve if we had fewer cars, and tightened traffic controls. For instance, we could institute a full-time odd-even system for license plates to keep cars off the road. Maybe then things will get better."

"In the winter, because of the heating, the pollution gets worse and the situation often turns bad. Not that long ago, we had many blue-sky days, for instance, during the military parade. So we know that when the city wants to clear out the smog, the results can be amazing."

To get back to those days of "amazing" weather, the government has been replacing coal-fired boilers with natural gas-powered power plants, as well as raising exhaust emission standards and forcing older, more polluting vehicles off the road.

Authorities have said they expect to shutter or move around 300 polluting factories out of the region this year. Another measure the Municipal government in Beijing is using to improve air quality is promoting the use of clean energy.

Wang Qian, vice-director of the Goldwind wind turbine factory in Beijing, says the demand for their products has been on the rise over the past couple of years.

"According to our predictions, next year the demand for our wind turbines is expected to grow significantly. The demand for our equipment this year has already increased over last year's figures."

But while steps are being taken, pollution is still a major problem in Beijing.

The average for PM2.5 in the capital this year is 70-micrograms per cubic meter.

While down 20-percent compared with the same period last year, the figure is still double the Chinese government's standard for clean air, which is 35-micrograms per cubic meter, and 7-times the World Health Organization's standard of 10.

It's estimated some 1.4-million people in China die every year from issues connected to air pollution.

For CRI, this is Li Jianhua.