State Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan
On 10 September 2013 the State Council issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, a ten-article campaign to cut PM10 and PM2.5 in key regions. Xi had been General Secretary since November 2012 and President since March 2013. In the causal graph this event strengthens Decarbonization and climate-mitigation policy, a driver that weakens Global CO2 emissions per capita — an improving welfare path.
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On 10 September 2013 the State Council issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, a ten-article campaign to cut PM10 and PM2.5 in key regions.
Context
Xi had been General Secretary since November 2012 and President since March 2013. Li Keqiang’s State Council issued the plan. MEP (later MEE) implemented. He is the political principal of the new leadership that owned the war on pollution. He did not sit as every city environmental bureau.
Later 2018 three-year blue-sky plan is a neighbouring later instrument. The 2021 ETS is a neighbouring later carbon-price file, not this PM plan.
The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.
Why it matters
The path is environmental health via the same family as later climate drivers: a completed national PM action plan is a dated expected reduction in urban air-pollution exposure.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Xi Jinping
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.5 · verified
The State Council issued the plan in the first year of his General Secretaryship. The Premier signed the State Council instrument. Cities implemented.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactState Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan
- strengthensDriverDecarbonization and climate-mitigation policy
- weakensIndicators (3)Global CO2 emissions per capita
impact weight 0.45 · Effect from 10 September 2013 · verified
A completed national PM action plan is a dated environmental-regulation campaign in the same family as later climate instruments, with coal and industrial controls.
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.27 (weight 0.45 × strength 0.6)
Observed
4.73 tonnes CO2 per person per year · 2.43 above the normal line (2024)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 4.71 tonnes CO2 per person per year (2023) and 4.73 tonnes CO2 per person per year (2024).
20232024 Above normal = worse
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.23 (weight 0.45 × strength 0.5)
Observed
32.9 micrograms per cubic metre (annual mean, population-weighted) · 27.9 above the normal line (2023)
Worse than normal3 readings, 2021–2023: fell from 33.2 micrograms per cubic metre (annual mean, population-weighted) to 32.9 micrograms per cubic metre (annual mean, population-weighted).
Above normal = worse
- Better
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.18 (weight 0.45 × strength 0.4)
Observed
30% of electricity generation · 11 above the normal line (2023)
Better than normal6 readings, 2000–2023: rose from 18.9% of electricity generation to 30% of electricity generation.
Above normal = better
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Reuters — China to reduce air pollution by 2017 in ambitious planReuters · High credibility · verified
- 2.State Council — Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, September 2013State Council of the PRC · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
State Council of the PRC carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.
Established: a September 2013 State Council Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, issued in the first year of Xi’s leadership.
Not established: a unique later national PM2.5 coefficient from the PDF, or that Li Keqiang did not share authorship as Premier.
The Premier signed the State Council instrument. Cities implemented.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies State Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, not a later speech about State Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan.
Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to The State Council issued the plan in the first year of his General Secretaryship. Cities implemented. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorXi Jinping
- contributed toFactState Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan
- strengthensDriverDecarbonization and climate-mitigation policy
- weakensIndicatorGlobal CO2 emissions per capita
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). State Council issues the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-air-pollution-action-plan-2013
https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-air-pollution-action-plan-2013
Accessed 15 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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