China Seeks to Eliminate Heavily Polluted Days in Decade

China said it will reduce coal consumption, close steel plants and control the number of cars on its roads in an effort to “gradually eliminate” heavily polluted days in as soon as a decade.

Air pollution “harms the people’s health and undermines social harmony and stability,” the State Council, China’s cabinet, said in a plan posted to the central government’s website today. Ensuring clean air affects the sustainability of economic growth and the ability to fulfill the “dream of the great renaissance of the Chinese nation.”