Beijing, China - February 24, 2025 China reached its air pollution prevention and control targets in 2024, with continued improvement in air quality, said an official of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment at a press briefing on Monday. During the conference, Li Tianwei, director of the Ecological and Environmental Emergency Response Office at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at the briefing that the country has seen notable improvement in air quality over the past year. He elaborated that the concentration of PM2.5 reached 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7 percent, and the number of days with good air quality accounted for 87.2 percent, marking a growth of 1.7 percentage points on a yearly basis. Meanwhile, the number of days with severe pollution or worse accounted for 0.9 percent, down 0.7 percentage points from one year ago. Li said China registered better-than-targeted performance in terms of the above-mentioned three indicators. Notably, he said, Beijing has met the level-II national standard in terms of PM2.5 concentration for four consecutive years, and "Beijing blue" has gradually become a new normal. According to Li, six major regions -- Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in north China, the city cluster at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in northwest China, Chengdu-Chongqing region in southwest China, the Fenhe River-Weihe River Plain in north and northwest China, the city cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River Delta region -- saw PM2.5 concentration declining by 3.4 percent, 13.4 percent, 10.8 percent, 4.8 percent, 4.4 percent, and 0.9 percent, respectively, year on year. The six regions account for more than half of China's population and economic output. Li said efforts are underway to further improve air quality. Shotlist: Beijing, China - Feb 24, 2025: 1. Various of press briefing in progress, reporters; 2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Tianwei, director, Ecological and Environmental Emergency Response Office, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (partially overlaid with shot 3): "2025 is the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan period. We will focus on pollution control and emission reduction by speeding up efforts to fulfill the key tasks such as clean heating and ultra-low emission transformation, VOC (volatile organic compound) pollution control, and mobile source (pollution) prevention and control, so as to comprehensively boost the green and low-carbon transition of the three major structures of industries, energy, and transportation."; FILE: Beijing, China - Date Unknown [SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 3. Buildings under blue sky; [SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 4. Buildings under blue sky; 5. Various of light rail, vehicles on road under blue sky; 6. Various of air quality monitoring vehicle moving on road; 7. Air quality monitoring technician working; FILE: Tangshan City, Hebei Province, north China - Date Unknown 8. Chimney at steel plant under blue sky; 9. Various of signs advocating green transition; trees at steel plant; FILE: Hebei Province, north China - Date Unknown 10. Various of clean heating systems. [Restriction - No access Chinese mainland]