Government of North China's Shanxi Province has announced its goals for controlling the PM2.5 concentrations for this winter and says it will hold government officials accountable for failing to improve air quality.
The provincial Environmental Protection Department's autumn-winter air pollution control plan calls for the average PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide concentrations to drop by around 40 percent annually, with the number of days with heavy pollution to decrease by more than 30 percent, between this October and March 2018, the Shanxi Evening News reported.
The plan also singled out six cities as no-coal regions that need to make the switch from coal to electricity or gas, covering 1 million families with clean heating projects by the end of October, the Shanxi Evening News explained.
The plan has a goal of bringing average PM2.5 concentrations down by 15 percent annually for its cities, and says that their deputy mayors will be held accountable if they fail to improve the air quality by at least 60 percent. The mayors will not get off lightly either and will be held accountable if air quality does not improve by 30 percent or more, while the Party chiefs will be held accountable if the cities' average PM2.5 concentration gets higher than a year ago.
