Posted March 06, 2017 17:42:41

Photo: Smog has grown so bad in cities such as Shanghai that domestic pressure is becoming the driving force behind climate policy. (Reuters: Aly Song)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is pledging to make the country's smoggy skies blue again and "work faster" to address pollution caused by the burning of coal for heat and electricity.

His words to delegates at the opening of the annual National People's Congress highlight how public discontent has made reducing smog, the most visible of China's environment problems, a priority for the leadership.

The 10-day event got underway under a sunny blue sky, thanks to heavy gusts from the north that cleared away the unhealthy grey from the day before.

Protests have increasingly broken out in cities where residents oppose the building of chemical plants and garbage incinerators, as China's middle class grows increasingly vocal in awareness of the dangers of pollution.

In a report to China's ceremonial legislature, Mr Li said people were desperately hoping for faster progress to improve air quality.

"We will make our skies blue again and take effective steps to tackle heavy air pollution," he told almost 3,000 delegates in the Great Hall of the People.

"We will strengthen research on the causes of smog to improve the scientific basis of the steps taken. Tackling smog is down to every last one of us and success depends on action and commitment."

Photo: Premier Li made the pledge to almost 3,000 delegates in the Great Hall of the People. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)

He said the Government intended over the next year to step up work to upgrade coal-fired power plants to achieve ultra-low emissions and energy conservation, and prioritise the integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity grid.

Integration problems have arisen because China has added wind and solar power at a faster rate than the grid has expanded.

That capacity is then wasted when grid operators choose to use traditional energy sources, including coal, over renewables.

Despite China's lingering dependence on coal plants, its consumption of the energy source fell in 2016 for a third year in a row.

Coal now makes up 62 per cent of China's total energy consumption mix.

Industrial pollution to be monitored: Li

Building on publicly available real-time and hourly readings from coal plants and other factories, Mr Li said: "All key sources of industrial pollution will be placed under round-the-clock online monitoring."

Environmental groups welcome the disclosure of such data because it allows the public to directly supervise the emissions of plants in their areas.

Lauri Myllyvirta, senior coal campaigner for Greenpeace, said they had expected the Government to announce a speeding up of measures because air pollution was supposed to hit targets this year that were laid down in 2013.

They include a 25 per cent reduction in the density of fine particulate matter — a gauge of air pollution in Beijing and the surrounding region from 2012 levels.

"It will require very dramatic steps to achieve those targets for this year," Mr Myllyvirta said.

Mr Li said the Government would ramp up efforts to deal with vehicle emissions by working faster to take old vehicles off the roads and encourage the use of clean-energy cars.

He also pledged to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 3 per cent this year and said the density of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, would fall "markedly" in key areas.

ABC/wires

Topics: air-pollution, world-politics, china