China sees fastest improvement in air quality globally: official

(ECNS) -- China has witnessed the fastest improvement in air quality across the world, said a government official at a press conference Thursday.

Over the past 10 years, China's air quality has undergone historic changes, said Huang Runqiu, minister of the Ecology and Environment.

The annual average value of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in China decreased from 46 micrograms/cubic meter in 2015 to 33 micrograms/cubic meter in 2020 and 30 micrograms/cubic meter in 2021, official data shows.

The days with good air quality reached 87.5 percent, an increase of 6.3 percentage points over 2015, according to the data.

China has reduced air pollution nearly as much in seven years as the US did in three decades, helping to bring down average global smog levels in the process, according to a Bloomberg report.