What are the top ten cities with the worst air quality in northern China? What are the reasons for their poor air quality?

Recently, the Ministry of Environmental Protection released the air quality of 74 cities across the country in 2014. Among them, the top 10 cities with the worst air are all in the north. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region accounts for 8 seats. Zhengzhou in Henan and Jinan in Shandong are also on the list. The top 10 cities with the worst air quality in 2014 were Baoding, Xingtai, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan, Hengshui, Jinan, Langfang, Zhengzhou and Tianjin.

2014 is the second year that my country has implemented new air quality standards, and it is also the second year that cities have monitored PM2.5. On February 2, the Ministry of Environmental Protection released the 2014 air quality status of 74 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta region, municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capital cities and cities specifically designated in the state plan. Monitoring results show that compared with 2013, the number of cities that met the standards increased from 3 to 8 out of 74 cities in 2014. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is still the most polluted area, with the average annual PM2.5 concentration of 93 micrograms/cubic meter, more than 1.6 times exceeding the standard. Among the national rankings of cities with relatively poor air quality, 8 cities were selected into the top ten with the worst air quality in the country.

Among China’s air, water and soil pollution, air pollution has the highest cost. Between 2000 and 2010, air pollution costs accounted for 6.5% of GDP, water pollution accounted for 2.1%, and soil pollution degradation accounted for 1.1%.

In recent years, the Chinese government has implemented a number of air pollution prevention and control policies similar to other industrialized economies, including providing subsidies for alternative energy sources, mandating the use of certain renewable energy sources, and mandating the scrapping of high-pollution-emitting vehicles. Automobiles, boilers and industrial facilities; installation of pollution control devices on key pollution sources and vehicles, etc.

The report affirms China's efforts and effectiveness in preventing air pollution, but states that if air quality is to be further improved to a level that does not harm people's health, these measures are still insufficient and more proactive policies need to be implemented.