A view of Sanya Bay in Hainan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hainan will stop selling oil-powered vehicles by 2030, making it the first province in China to have set a timetable for doing it. This was announced by Hainan's Party chief Liu Cigui on Monday at a news conference on construction of a free-trade port there.

According to Liu, Hainan's PM2.5 level-which describes air quality by measuring concentration of particulate matter with a diameter 2.5 micrometers or less in the airwas as low as 18 micrograms per cubic meter in 2017, indicating excellent air quality.

It dipped by 1 microgram each in the following two years and the authorities plan to bring it down to single digits by 2030. Gradually reducing the sale of oil-powered vehicles is one way of achieving that goal.

While building the free trade port in Hainan, the central and local governments are abiding by the principles of ecology and green development first. They are respecting the Hainan Free Trade Port Construction's goal of transforming the island into a national ecological civilization pilot zone.

Liu said Hainan will stick to the ecological bottom line and any development project that could threaten Hainan's ecology will be abandoned no matter how much GDP or tax revenue it is capable of generating.

As part of the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-20), Hainan is promoting development of more than 30,000 new energy vehicles and building more than 28,000 charging points on the island.

Hainan's governor Shen Xiaoming had said at the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia that the province will launch a plan popularizing new energy vehicles before 2030, taking a lead in promoting green energy in island economies the world over

Ecological protection is becoming increasingly important and clean energy vehicles will soon become the main players toward achieving it. It is only a matter of time before oil-powered vehicles bow out as Hainan's pilot plan accelerates the promotion of green vehicles.