Beijing pollution ‘too much for the environment’
Print Edition
THE amount of pollutants discharged in Beijing last year was much greater than its environment could handle, with PM2.5 in particular exceeding standards, according to an annual environmental report released yesterday.
Despite efforts to curb pollution, the Chinese capital’s environmental protection bureau said in its report that the quality of the environment in 2013 was almost the same as that of the previous year.
Based on the six pollutants monitored in 2013, the air quality on just 176 days was classified as “fine,” said Zhang Dawei, director of the city’s environmental monitoring center.
Beijing’s average PM2.5 (airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter) index stood at 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013, exceeding the new national standard for fine air by 156 percent.
The average index readings of nitrogen dioxide and PM10 were 56 and 108.1 micrograms per cubic meter, exceeding the national standards by 40 and 54 percent respectively. The daily maximum eight-hour average ozone concentration exceeded the standard by 14.6 percent.
Only the index for sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide met the standards last year.
The environmental protection bureau’s Liu Xianshu said there was a gap between air quality in the southern and northern parts of the city.
“The average PM2.5 index monitored in the north was 60.3 micrograms per cubic meter last year, while it stood at 116.3 micrograms per cubic meter in the south, about twice the amount of the north,” Liu said.
The report also said Beijing failed to address its shortage of water resources and the severe pollution of downstream sections of the capital’s rivers.
To improve the environment, China must drop a GDP-oriented development model and take its environmental capacities into consideration when making economic development plans, said Zhong Maochu, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin. That is particularly true for Beijing, Zhong said.
The city’s development and reform commission said yesterday it had not yet made a list of the most energy-consuming and highly polluting enterprises to be relocated to neighboring cities.
However, it does encourage enterprises to improve their pollution control facilities to ensure they can remain in Beijing, said a commission official.
“Beijing has paid a remarkable environmental cost for pollution. Considering Beijing’s role in the country, the removal of polluters from the city is inevitable,” said Niu Fengrui, a researcher with the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies. The government, however, should take more measures to encourage enterprises to upgrade production to reduce pollutant emissions and to lessen energy consumption voluntarily.
The city plans to close or upgrade 300 highly polluting enterprises in 2014, and the number is expected to reach 1,200 by the end of 2016.
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