Half Two Finance | National Bureau of Statistics: Annual Average PM2.5 Concentration Decreased by 4.4% Compared to Last Year

On February 28, the National Bureau of Statistics released the “2025 People’s Republic of China National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin.” The bulletin shows that the total transaction volume of carbon emission allowances in the national carbon trading market was 235 million tons, with a transaction value of 14.63 billion yuan. The annual average PM2.5 concentration was 28.0 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 4.4% compared to the previous year.

In the fields of resources, environment, and emergency management, the bulletin indicates that the total supply of state-owned construction land nationwide was 471,000 hectares, a decrease of 22.2% from the previous year.

The total afforestation area for the year was 3.56 million hectares, including 830,000 hectares of artificial afforestation, accounting for 23.2% of the total afforestation area. The area of grassland improvement was 4.93 million hectares. By the end of the year, there were 5 national parks.

Preliminary calculations show that the total energy consumption for the year was 6.17 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 3.5% over the previous year. Coal consumption increased by 0.1%, crude oil consumption grew by 3.6%, natural gas consumption rose by 2.0%, and electricity consumption increased by 5.0%. Coal accounted for 51.4% of total energy consumption, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points from the previous year; clean energy sources such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar power accounted for 30.4%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points.

The comprehensive energy consumption per unit of calcium carbide in key energy-consuming industrial enterprises decreased by 0.7%, the comprehensive energy consumption per unit of synthetic ammonia decreased by 2.3%, the energy consumption per ton of steel increased by 1.9%, and the comprehensive energy consumption per unit of electrolytic aluminum decreased by 0.9%. The standard coal consumption per kilowatt-hour of thermal power generation remained the same as the previous year.

Preliminary estimates indicate that after deducting raw material energy use and non-fossil energy consumption, the energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP decreased by 5.1% compared to the previous year. The total transaction volume of carbon emission allowances in the national carbon trading market was 235 million tons, with a transaction value of 14.63 billion yuan.

In coastal waters, 84.9% of the area met the national Class I and II seawater quality standards, 4.6% was Class III, and 10.5% was Class IV or inferior.

Among 339 monitored cities at or above the prefecture level, the annual average PM2.5 concentration was 28.0 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 4.4% from the previous year.

In 332 cities where daytime noise environment monitoring was conducted, 9.3% of cities had good noise environment quality, 65.1% were relatively good, 25.0% were average, 0.6% were poor, and there were no cities with unacceptable noise levels.

The average annual temperature was 10.9°C, unchanged from the previous year. A total of 10 typhoons made landfall.

The area affected by crop disasters was 6.07 million hectares, including 690,000 hectares of total crop failure. Direct economic losses caused by floods and geological disasters amounted to 166.6 billion yuan; drought disasters caused direct losses of 8.6 billion yuan; cold and snow disasters caused 900 million yuan in direct losses; marine disasters caused 8.9 billion yuan. There were 11 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or above, causing a total of 9.7 billion yuan in direct economic losses. There were 225 forest fires, affecting approximately 50,000 hectares of forest.

Throughout the year, there were a total of 18,261 fatalities from various production safety accidents, a decrease of 7.0% compared to the previous year.

Text by Beijing Youth Reporter Zhang Xin

Editing by Zhou Chao