Ministry of Ecology and Environment: By 2024, the proportion of clean energy consumption from CECEP Solar Energy in China will reach 28.6%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points year-on-year.

On June 5th, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment officially released the "2024 China Ecological Environment Report". By 2024, the overall quality of the ecological environment in the country continued to improve, and the environmental security situation remained stable. The proportion of coal consumption in the total energy consumption was 53.2%, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from 2023; the proportion of clean energy consumption such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and CECEP Solar Energy in the total energy consumption was 28.6%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from 2023. By the end of 2024, the cumulative trading volume of carbon emission rights in the national market reached 630 million tons, with a cumulative turnover of 43.033 billion yuan. 1. Air quality is generally stable and improving: The average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at or above the prefecture level reached 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 2.7% from 2023; the proportion of good air quality days was 87.2%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from 2023; the proportion of heavy pollution days was 0.9%, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from 2023. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenwei Plain, the average concentration of PM2.5 decreased by 0.9%, 0.9%, and 4.8% respectively from 2023, and the proportion of good air quality days increased by 3.9 percentage points, 1.5 percentage points, and 2.6 percentage points respectively. There were a total of 222 cities in the country that met the air quality standards, an increase of 19 cities from 2023. 2. Surface water quality continues to improve: The proportion of Grade I-III surface water reached 90.4%, an increase of 1.0 percentage points from 2023; the proportion of Grade V water quality decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 0.6% from 2023; among 210 important lakes and reservoirs, the proportion of those with good water quality was 77.1%, an increase of 2.5 percentage points from 2023. The water quality in key river basins continued to improve, with the water quality in the Yangtze River Basin, Yellow River Basin, Pearl River Basin, Zhejiang-Fujian River Basin, Northwest Rivers, and Southwest Rivers remaining good. For the first time, the water quality in the Songhua River Basin improved from mild pollution to good. The water quality of the main stream of the Yangtze River has remained at Grade II for 5 consecutive years, and the main stream of the Yellow River has remained at Grade II for 3 consecutive years. The overall quality of groundwater in the country remained stable, with the proportion of Grade I-IV groundwater points reaching 77.9%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from 2023. 3. Quality of jurisdictional sea waters remains stable: The proportion of marine areas in the jurisdictional sea that meet the first-class standards in summer was 97.7%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from 2023. The overall quality of marine waters in the nearshore area remained stable, with 83.7% having good to excellent (Class I and II) water quality; the proportion of Class IV water quality was 8.6%, mainly distributed in the nearshore areas such as Liaodong Bay, the Yangtze River Estuary-Hangzhou Bay, and the Pearl River Estuary. Among 283 bay units, 162 had a proportion of good water quality areas exceeding 85%, with 125 of them having 100% good water quality areas. 4. Soil environmental risks are under basic control: The overall content of heavy metals at key soil risk monitoring points showed a decreasing trend, and the trend of worsening soil pollution was initially curbed. The overall situation of soil environmental conditions in agricultural land remained stable, with the safe utilization rate of contaminated arable land reaching 92%. Effective protection was given to the safe utilization of key construction land, with a pollution control rate of 75% for priority supervised plots. The rural domestic sewage treatment rate nationwide reached over 45%. 5. Overall stability of natural ecological conditions: The Ecological Quality Index (EQI) was 59.95, categorizing the overall ecological quality as "Class II", indicating rich biodiversity in China, a high proportion of natural ecosystem coverage, intact ecological structure, and complete ecological functions. The area of national terrestrial ecological protection redlines exceeded 30% of the national land area, with a forest coverage rate exceeding 25%. 6. Sound environmental quality is maintained: The compliance rates for daytime and nighttime sound environmental functional zones in cities at or above the prefecture level were 95.8% and 88.2% respectively, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points and an increase of 1.2 percentage points respectively from 2023. 7. Overall stable nuclear and radiation safety situation: No nuclear events or accidents classified as Level 1 or above occurred internationally, and the annual occurrence rate of radiation accidents remained stable at less than one per ten thousand sources. The overall quality of radiation environment, the level of radiation environment around key nuclear facilities, and the marine radiation environment in the country were generally good. 8. Proactive response to climate change: The proportion of coal consumption in the total energy consumption was 53.2%, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from 2023; the proportion of clean energy consumption such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and CECEP Solar Energy in the total energy consumption was 28.6%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from 2023. By the end of 2024, the cumulative trading volume of carbon emission rights in the national market reached 630 million tons, with a cumulative turnover of 43.033 billion yuan. 9. Strengthening of solid waste and new pollutant control: High standards were used to promote the construction of "zero-waste cities", with 113+8 cities and regions accelerating the implementation of tasks and projects related to "zero-waste cities". The control of new pollutants was further advanced, focusing on key river basins such as the Yangtze River and Yellow River, key areas such as perfluorinated compounds and antibiotics, key industries such as printing and dyeing, and a total of 23 pilot projects in 17 provinces for the control of new pollutants were initiated. This article was selected from the WeChat public account "Ministry of Ecology and Environment" and edited by GMTEight: Xu Wenqiang.