The average annual concentration of PM2.5 in Chinese capital Beijing continued to decline in 2024, meeting the country's air quality level 2 standard for the fourth consecutive year, officials said at a press conference on Thursday.

Data shows that the average annual PM2.5 concentration in Beijing's atmospheric environment in 2024 was 30.5 micrograms per cubic meter. Throughout the year, there were 290 days with good-or-above air quality, accounting for nearly 80 percent, an increase of 19 days from the previous year.

"In 2024, PM2.5 decreased by 6.2 percent year on year. The number of 290 days with good-or-above air quality all through the year was the most in history since monitoring records began," said Liu Baoxian, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau.

In 2024, Beijing continued to deepen the "one microgram" initiative, and implemented precise management measures based on the air conditions in different seasons.

The "one microgram" initiative is a long-term initiative for controlling Beijing's air pollution. It uses a combination of targeted measures to achieve its purpose, including technology, enforcement and compliance and management measures. By this initiative, each and every microgram of emission reduction counts.

"We have introduced financial subsidies such as supporting the replacement of old vehicles with new ones, the renewal of scrapped old trucks and large and medium-sized buses that meet the National IV emission standards, and implemented policies such as priority passage for new energy logistics and distribution vehicles. In newly-produced vehicles, the proportion of new energy vehicles has exceeded 50 percent for six consecutive months, and the proportion of new energy machinery has increased by 8.5 percentage points," said Xie Jinkai, director of the atmospheric environment division of the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau.