Baotou, located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently commended cities that achieved remarkable results in improving their environmental quality in 2021, and the city of Baotou was among them. The ministry also required all cities around the country to learn from the cities’ experiences and practices in urban environmental quality improvement.

Last year, Baotou implemented measures such as industry transformation, gas control, coal reduction, dust reduction, vehicle control, and strict management. After implementing the above measures, the environmental quality in Baotou continued to improve, and a historic breakthrough was made in the prevention and control of air pollution.

Baotou's air quality has improved dramatically. The number of good air days in the city reached 303 for the first time, the six pollutants are within required levels, and the improvement rate ranks first among 168 key cities in China.

In the first half of this year, the Baotou bureau of ecology and environment continued to maintain precise pollution control, and the air quality continued to improve.

As of the end of June, the city had experienced 153 good air days, 84.4 percent of the total days and an increase of 8.7 percentage points year-on-year, while the comprehensive air quality index was 4.07, a year-on-year improvement of 4.7 percent.

In addition, emissions of major pollutants are within the required levels, and the concentration of pollutants has further improved compared with the same period last year. The concentration of PM2.5 was 30 microgram/cubic meter, an improvement of 9.1 percent year-on-year, while the concentration of PM10 was 62 mg/cu m, an improvement of 12.7 percent year-on-year.