Beijing on red pollution alert
Print Edition
BEIJING yesterday issued its first-ever red alert for pollution, as a new blanket of choking smog was set to descend on the city.
From this morning, half of the capital’s private cars will be ordered off the road, with an odd-even number plate system in force, and 30 percent of government vehicles will be also garaged.
Outdoor construction sites will cease operations, but only some industrial plants will have to “implement measures to limit or stop production,” said Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau on its verified social media account, adding that fireworks and barbecues are also banned.
“People should to the best of their ability reduce outdoor activities,” it said.
“If you are engaging in outdoor activities you should wear a mask or take other protective measures.”
Kindergartens, primary and middle schools were urged to close, it added, without explicitly making the measures mandatory.
A red alert, issued when severe smog is expected to last more than 72 hours, is the highest of Beijing’s four-tiered, color-coded warning system.
The capital has never issued it since the adoption of an emergency response program for air pollution in 2013, despite frequent bouts of serious smog.
Yesterday’s red alert came just a week after a thick grey haze shrouded the city with concentrations of PM2.5 — harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs — as high as 634 micrograms per cubic meter.
It also coincided with global climate change talks in Paris, where Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed “action” on greenhouse gas emissions.
Most of those emissions in China come from the burning of coal for electricity and heating, which spikes when demand peaks in winter and is the main cause of smog.
The issue is gaining ever increasing attention from authorities in China, which has seen breakneck economic growth in recent decades but at the cost of widespread environmental damage. Pollution is blamed for causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths every year.
Last night, Beijing PM2.5 levels were 187, according to authorities, with visibility significantly better than the previous week.
China’s environmental protection chief Chen Jining on Sunday vowed to punish agencies and officials for any failure to quickly implement a pollution emergency response plan.
China has pledged that emissions will peak “around 2030,” without saying at what level and implying several years of further increases.
It has promised to reduce coal consumption by 100 million tons by 2020 — a small fraction of the 4.2 billion tons it consumed in 2012 — and cut 60 percent of “major pollutants” from coal-fired power plants, without specifying the chemicals in question.
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