The heavy smog isn’t expected to improve until Thursday. The city is now under an orange alert, the second-highest level. Air pollution levels in some of China’s smoggiest cities fell by almost a third in the first quarter of this year, environmental campaign group Greenpeace said on April 21.
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Policemen wear protective masks at the Tiananmen Square on an extremely polluted day as hazardous, choking smog continues to blanket Beijing, China December 1, 2015.
This is the first time Beijing has issued a red alert for smog since 2013 when Beijing adopted an emergency response programme for air pollution. Yesterday China’s weather observatory issued a yellow alert for smog that will cover the country’s northern regions and asked schools to keep the children not let them outdoors to avoid exposure to heavy smog.
“It is a sharp warning to us that we may have too much development at the price of environment and it is time for us to seriously deal with air pollution”, said Fan, the hotel employee.
Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection warns that severe pollution will cover the Chinese capital, starting Tuesday local time and lasting for more than three days.
“If today is a red alert, then what was it I was seeing last week?” asked one incredulous user. Analysts said the announcement was intended mainly to allay public anger over smog rather than to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
On Monday evening, Beijing PM2.5 levels were 206 micrograms per cubic metre according to the United States embassy, and 187 according to local authorities, with visibility significantly better than the previous week.
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It has promised to reduce coal consumption by 100 million tonnes by 2020 – a small fraction of the 4.2 billion tonnes it consumed in 2012 – and cut 60 percent of “major pollutants” from coal-fired power plants, without specifying the chemicals in question.
