Today (March 8), the second "Minister Channel" of the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress was held in the Great Hall of the People. Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu was interviewed by reporters.

How was the environmental protection transcript last year and how did you view these achievements? Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, displayed two air filter membranes on the spot.

Huang Runqiu: I brought two filter membranes taken from the Beijing Atmospheric Environment Monitor, which is the same as the filter element on the air purifier at home. The left part is from 2015, which absorbed too much PM2.5, so it is gray-black; the right part is from last year, gray-white. In the past ten years, the PM2.5 concentration in Beijing dropped from 80.6 micrograms per cubic meter to 30.5 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 62%, and the filter membrane also changed from black to white.

Huang Runqiu said that in the past decade, the national ecological environment has undergone fundamental and turning points. In 2024, the ecological environment quality has been improved, and the proportion of excellent surface water quality sections across the country has crossed the threshold of 90% to reach 90.4%. There is still a little light pollution outside Beijing today, which reminds us that the battle against pollution prevention and control cannot rest, and must continue to fight in depth.