People visit Shenxianju Scenic Area in Taizhou's Xianju county, Zhejiang province on Dec 11, 2020. [Photo/IC]

The Zhejiang Provincial Government has successfully fulfilled the tasks set out by its three-year action plan (2018-2020) on tackling air pollution, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment recently disclosed.

Zhejiang's general air quality met the national second-grade standard in 2018, earlier than most Chinese provinces in prosperous regions. Five Zhejiang cities at the prefecture-level or above entered the top 20 in the annual air quality survey conducted in 2018 among 168 key cities nationwide.

In 2019, Zhejiang maintained its advantage in air quality, with all its cities at the prefecture-level or above eliminating heavy-pollution weather conditions throughout the year, setting a record.

Throughout 2020, the average density of PM2.5 particulate matter, a major air pollutant in China, in the aforementioned cities was 25 micrograms per cubic meter, which was 19.4 percent less than the corresponding figure for the previous year. All Zhejiang cities above the county level observed no heavy-pollution weather conditions throughout the year, setting another record.

Zhejiang's remarkable improvement in air quality over the past three years is largely attributable to its relentless efforts in restructuring industries. Since 2018, Zhejiang has relocated or renovated 73 heavy-polluting enterprises and shut down more than 4,400 enterprises that either had outdated production modes or overly saturated markets. It has also eliminated or transformed 973 coal-fired boilers, removed 474 gas generators, and converted 3,389 gas-fired boilers to have low-nitrogen combustion modes.