(Yicai Global) May 29 -- China's environment kept improving last year with a drop in recorded pollution, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said today. 

The concentration of fine particulate matter in 339 prefecture-level cities was 29 micrograms per cubic meter, down 3.3 percent from a year ago, Jiang Huohua, deputy director of the ministry’s ecological and environmental monitoring department, said at a press conference.

The proportion of severely polluted days was 0.9 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from a year ago, and 87.9 percent of the 3,641 surface water assessments were of excellent quality, up 3 percentage points from 2021, Jiang noted.

In addition, the proportion of days with severe pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Fenwei Plain decreased by 0.9 point, 0.2 point and 1 point respectively, compared with 2021.

Progress has also been made in energy conservation and reduction of emissions. Last year, China’s carbon dioxide emissions per CNY10,000 (USD1,420) of gross domestic product fell by 0.8 percent from a year earlier, and energy consumption per CNY10,000 of GDP fell by 0.1 percent. The national forest coverage rate reached 24.02 percent last year, and the total carbon storage of forest and grass vegetation in the country reached 11.443 billion metric tons.

China's ecology and environment continue to improve, and the formation of green and low-carbon production and lifestyles has accelerated, said Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Last year, electricity generated by clean energy such as hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar power increased by 8.5 percent over the previous year. The proportion of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption was 17.5 percent, up 0.8 point.

China's marine ecological environment also improved in 2022, said Wang Juying, director of the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center. The quality of seawater remained stable on the whole, and the environmental quality of the main sea-using areas was generally good.

But there is still excessive discharge of waste directly into the sea, with monitoring indicators showing that pollutants such as phosphorus, fecal coliform and nitrogen exceeded the standard, he said.

Editor: Tom Litting