The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, has come up with a 36.96-billion-yuan ($5.68 billion) 3-year investment plan aimed at reducing air pollution, local authorities say.

The money will be used for 33 projects in coal-fired plants, clean coal utilization, coal-fired boiler emissions, heavy pollution emergency responses, and other areas.

In a related action, unqualified automobile fuel will be replaced by gasoline and diesel fuel by the end of this year to meet national V emissions standards. The city is also speeding up the process of eliminating “yellow label” vehicles -- gasoline vehicles falling below the National I emissions standards and diesel vehicles below the National III standard.

Finally, an analysis of the first quarter of this year shows 53 days with good air quality, an improvement of 22 days over the same period last year. At the same time, the number of days with heavy pollution have decreased to only 4, or 15 days less than in 2015. And, average concentrations of PM 2.5 are down by 26 micrograms per cubic meter, PM10, down by 42, Nitrogen Dioxide, down 12, and Sulfur Dioxide, 42.