Fruitful results in building beautiful Shanxi

In recent years, North China's Shanxi province has made significant strides in advancing carbon reduction, pollution control, afforestation, and sustainable growth. The efforts to construct a beautiful Shanxi have seen positive developments.

Data indicates a 2.6-percent decrease in the average PM2.5 concentration in 2023 compared to 2022 and a 19.6-percent improvement since 2020, reaching a historic low. Additionally, the province's environmental air quality index averaged 4.48 in 2023, a 0.2-percent decrease from the previous year. The proportion of heavily polluted days was 0.9 percent, consistently below 1 percent for three consecutive years.

Shanxi has diligently implemented major national strategies for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. The environmental foundation has significantly improved through infrastructure projects and ecological restoration efforts. In 2023, 90 percent of the 59 national assessment sections of the Yellow River Basin across Shanxi achieved excellent water quality, marking the province's best performance to date.

Shanxi's ecosystem diversity, stability, and sustainability continue to enhance. The province has designated 34,100 square kilometers of ecological protection redline areas, accounting for 21.78 percent of the total provincial land area.

Shanxi has actively built itself into a pilot province for implementing the Beautiful China Initiative. By 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment designated 15 counties and districts in Shanxi as ecological civilization demonstration areas, with eight others recognized as "lucid waters and lush mountains are as invaluable as gold and silver" innovative practice bases.