The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Beijing is getting ready for another gray winter after China eased air quality targets, signalling the government is focusing on bolstering slowing growth at the expense of cleaner air.
In September, the government eased its target for a key air quality indicator in northern China, including industrial areas surrounding the capital.
It is seeking a 4% drop in concentrations of deadly PM 2.5 particles in the October-to-March period from a year earlier, lower than the 5.5% decline it sought in an earlier draft of pollution-control goals. China similarly grappled with balancing the competing demands of growth and pollution control last winter, with some economists suggesting the economic slowdown was behind a decision to move away from hard emissions targets as the government tried to keep factories churning.
The need to shore up growth has come into conflict with President Xi Jinping’s move to step up as a global leader on climate change after his counterpart Donald Trump scaled back US involvement.
“The weak economic prospect is taming China’s environmental ambition,†said Li Shuo, a policy adviser at Greenpeace China, adding that the targets were probably “watered down†in consultation with multiple ministries and local industrial interests.
The environment ministry said last year that northern China’s industrial hub would adopt a more flexible program for its output curbs during the winter.