Beijing issues first ever ‘red alert’ on air pollution

The red alert, the highest tier of a four-colour warning system, came as heavy smog flooded the city for the second time in as many weeks.

The loan will support policies aimed at reducing annual coal consumption in Hebei by more than 12 million tons and follows the first pollution “red alert” from Beijing’s municipal government this week, which closed schools and limited vehicle use in the capital.

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.

Wang, who runs a Beijing food wholesale business, said the driving restrictions posed by officials also promoted residents to think about buying electric vehicles.

Beijing now has 36 monitoring stations.

The report also cited online retailer JD.com as saying pollution mask sales soared by as much as 400 percent in response to the bad air.

Rapid industrial growth and rising vehicle ownership over the past decade have driven up pollution in China’s cities, a problem researchers say is a major source of unrest.

A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University found that a shift to electric cars in China might cause more air pollution because of the nation’s emissions-intensive electricity grid.

The chronic haze blanketing northeastern China earlier this month was so thick that, unlike the Great Wall, it could be seen from outer space, according to satellite photographs from NASA.

Thomson ReutersSmoke rises from chimneys on a hazy day in DezhouBEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese environmental authorities rebuked the mayor of an eastern city over its ineffectual response to days of choking smog, state media said on Thursday, as the government works to show it is capable of tackling an air pollution crisis.

“Recently, the smog is so serious that people aren’t willing to go outside, so they call us to ask”, said Li Hui, owner of several BYD dealerships, which focus on environmentally friendly cars.