China News Service, Chengdu, September 6 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) The latest research report shows that since 2013, China has implemented three clean air action plans, promoting historic improvements in air quality and bringing significant public health benefits.
Since 2013, China has successively promulgated and implemented the Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control, the Three-Year Action Plan to Win the War to Defend Blue Skies, and the Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality, making unprecedented efforts to improve air quality. In 2025, China's ambient air quality will reach the best in history, and indicators such as the proportion of good days and the proportion of heavily polluted days will be at their best levels since monitoring records began.
The "Health Effects Assessment of China's Air Quality Improvement 2026: Towards the Target of Halving the Health Effects of Air Pollution" compiled by the Peking University Air and Climate Health Research Team was released in Chengdu on the 5th. Research results show that since 2013, with the continuous implementation of the three-phase clean air action, the national population-weighted fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration has dropped to 27.4 micrograms per cubic meter, a cumulative decrease of 57.4%; the cumulative adult disease burden attributable to PM2.5 long-term exposure has dropped by 27.2%, indicating that continued improvement in air quality has brought significant public health benefits.
“China’s clean air action has achieved remarkable results,” Bjarne Peterson, executive director of Clean Air Asia, said at the “Bringing Blue to the City” themed event held in Chengdu on the 5th. Improving air quality is not only an environmental goal, but also an important investment in people’s health, economic resilience and sustainable urban development.
"The complexity, arduousness and long-term nature of the current air pollution control work still exists." Tong Yanchao, a second-level inspector of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, said that in early 2026, the new version of the "Ambient Air Quality Standards" will be revised and implemented to benchmark the goals of building a beautiful China and focus on tightening the concentration limits of PM2.5 and other pollutants to better protect public health and respond to the people's good expectations for blue skies.
Xue Tao, associate professor and researcher at Peking University School of Medicine, believes that we should continue to promote emission reductions in key areas such as energy, industry, transportation, residential sources and agriculture, deepen coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, reduce structural pollution sources, and prevent PM2.5 concentrations from rebounding during the low plateau period. At the same time, in the context of the gradual narrowing of traditional end-of-pipe governance space and the rising unit emission reduction costs, it is necessary to further unleash the potential of air quality improvement through energy structure adjustment, industrial structure optimization and low-carbon transformation.
