Ningbo is listed as a provincial model for air quality in East China's Zhejiang province in 2020. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Ningbo was recently listed among the Zhejiang provincial demonstration zones for air quality in 2020, according to local media reports.

In 2020, the number of days in the year with good air quality in Ningbo's central urban area accounted for 92.9 percent of the total, up 5.9 percent year-on-year.

The average PM2.5 level was 23 micrograms per cubic meter, a decline of 20.7 percent year-on-year, according to official data from the Ningbo municipal bureau of ecology and environment.

This achievement is largely due to efforts made by local authorities to reduce pollution.

Last year, Ningbo shut down or rectified 2,376 polluting enterprises and completed upgrading of 100 factories that emit volatile organic compounds (VCGs).

Progress has also been made in controlling the emissions of non-road mobile machinery (NRMM).

The city has to date 27,800 NRMMs, among which 25,200 are licensed, the highest in Zhejiang.

This year, the city plans to rectify an additional 1,500 polluting enterprises and upgrade 25 small and micro-sized industrial parks.

In order to become a provincial demonstration zone for air quality, a city must have less than 8 percent of days in a year with bad air quality, air quality must reach the national secondary standard and no serious atmospheric emergency accidents should occur within the year.

In 2019, Ningbo's Fenghua district also won this honor following Xiangshan county and Ninghai county in 2018.