Beijing’s air pollution has been placed at the highest level for the first time in history with many construction sites and schools closed across the city.
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Readings of PM2.5 particles climbed above 300 microgrammes per cubic metre in some parts of the city and were expected to continue rising before the air begins to improve with the arrival of a cold front tomorrow.
“This week in Paris, China is rightfully getting credit for its policies to tackle climate change”, Alex Wang, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policy, said in the New York Times article. When the alert came into force early this morning local time the US Embassy’s pollution monitor showed the levels of particulate matter in the air had reached 291 micrograms per cubic metre, compared to 666 micrograms per cubic metre last week. And to top it all off, China is still very much relying on coal-generated electric power and heating.
Under the alert – the highest in a four-tiered, colour-coded warning system – an odd-even number plate system bans half the city’s roughly 4.4 million private vehicles from the streets on alternate days.
Due to continuing strong air pollution, the Chinese authorities in the capital Beijing have proclaimed for the first time the highest red alert.
These measures cannot totally eliminate pollution, but they can effectively reduce the spike in pollution, according to environmental protection organs in Beijing.
The unprecedented red alert will be effective from 7 am on Tuesday until 12 noon on Thursday, according to Beijing Emergency Management. Bi Jun with School for the Environment at Nanjing University says the permit system is more targeted than the previous approval process.
In an online statement, the Beijing city government ordered all outdoor construction work to stop on red alert days, besides urging schools to close. Nobody seemed to care about the children forced to go to school despite the appalling air quality.
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Despite the red alert order, many residents tried to circumvent the rules.
