Beijing’s authorities ordered limits on cars, factories and construction sites during a red alert for smog from Tuesday through to midday on Thursday.
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A red alert triggers restrictions on vehicles while schools are closed, businesses recommended to allow flexible hours and the government advises that all “large-scale, outdoor activity” be stopped. Levels of PM 2.5, considered the most hazardous, crossed 600 units in Beijing, almost 25 times the acceptable standard set by the World Health Organization.
On Monday, Beijing issued its first red alert for air pollution since the four-tier emergency response system was created in October 2013.
This unprecedented strategy resulted from intense public criticism which was focused on last week’s equally deadly haze where the city did not carry out the necessary warnings to protect its citizens.
In a note posted online, the city wrote that the emergency measures had “been effective in slowing down the process of smog accumulation”, and expressed its “heartfelt thanks” and “sincere tribute” for residents’ contributions to the effort.
A red alert is triggered when the government believes air quality will surpass a level of 200 on an air quality index that measures various pollutants for at least three days. They emphasized that they will “fight well a hard battle to prevent and contain air pollution”, Yahoo News reported.
State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said the mayor of Dezhou, a midsized industrial city in the northeastern province of Shandong, could face more serious consequences if the situation there did not improve.
The miasma came as President Xi Jinping attended a critical meeting on climate change in Paris, a potentially embarrassing coincidence that underscored China’s struggle to control the pollution that contributes to both its chronic smog and global warming.
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A screenshot of the air pollution ratings of Chinese cities on the early morning of December 10, 2015.
