China's investment in clean energy pays off as air quality improves

Beijing citizens have begun to enjoy some of the cleanest air in a decade as positive results for the government's anti-smog push start to show.

Monthly readings in China’s capital have shown the level of pollution is the lowest since 2008, according to data by the US embassy in Beijing. July pollution levels averaged 44 micrograms of airborne particles per cubic metre.

China’s pollution levels peaked in 2013 in the “airpocalypse” with tiny particles overpassing by 35 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

Back in 2013 President Xi Jinping announced new measures to fight air contamination and made it one of the country’s priorities. Millions of families were forced to switch from coal to natural gas for industrial power and home heating.

Now, China is the world’s top importer of natural gas and has caused a rise in prices last winter to be the highest since 2014.

“China has made a very clear pledge to ‘bring back the blue skies’. Hardly a week goes by when China doesn’t bring in a new regulation or policy to further this commitment,” according to director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Meanwhile, as part of the burgeoning trade skirmish with the US, China could face oil-related sanctions if it continues to trade with Iran.

The US is highly unlikely to sanction China as a nation state, broker SP Angel said, but US authorities may move to block US dollar trade for Chinese parastatal companies if they go against the US sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.

China and the US are set for another round of negotiations regarding trade relations this week.