As the Cop21 opens in Paris, northern China on Monday experienced a thick fog of pollution with a record density for the year 2015. The World Health Organization considers the safe level at 25 micrograms per cubic meter of the particulates.
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The city reported the level of tiny PM2.5 particles in the air to be more than 600 micrograms per cubic meter late yesterday afternoon.
Beijing vowed to clean up its toxic air past year, after sales of air purifiers across the country skyrocketed, as citizens attempted to protect themselves increasing levels of pollution.
Due to their size, when these particles enter the lungs, they become the cause of hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in China every year. Schools suspended outdoor activities and polluting factories were required to reduce production.
On Monday, he’s scheduled to deliver a speech to the conference, reaffirming China’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Neon signs barely punctured the gloom, and many Beijing residents wore masks of various kinds while walking the streets.
“The grim alert came ahead of the Paris climate meet where China is expected to make a strong case”, Environment Minister Chen Jining said on Sunday, adding that China has achieved the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants.
Beijing was again engulfed in heavy smog on Monday, sending air pollution readings soaring ahead of President Xi Jinping’s address to the global climate change summit in Paris.
China is the world’s biggest polluter, with 24 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions, compared to 15.5 percent from the United States and 10.8 percent from the European Union.
But the government has yet to issue any official warnings and thirty thousand half marathon runners struggled through this weekend, when pollutions levels were just as high.
In Baoding, a city 90 miles south of the country’s capital, 11 million locals went about their everyday lives in an impenetrable haze of pollution, NBC News reported. Most of it is heavy industries, like coal mining, are located in northeastern China.
An unfortunate combination of weather conditions has also helped trap pollutants, according to meteorologists – cold air closer to the ground resulting from thawing snow reduced the mobility of airborne pollutants, officials said. But in a report this month, Greenpeace East Asia found that China had granted environmental permits to 155 coal-fired power plant during the first nine months of this year.
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Smog has shrouded much of northern China including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
