Beijing factories urged to stop work to fight haze

The air quality index in many cities, including Beijing and Langfang and Bao-ding in Hebei province, reached the top reading of 500 on Monday, meaning air pollution had reached the most severe level, according to the cities’ environmental monitoring stations.

As President Xi Jinping arrived in Paris at the start of a long-awaited climate change summit, Beijing municipal authorities issued an orange smog warning forcing industrial facilities to reduce or shut down production, official media reported.

A thick grey smoke shrouded Beijing, with the concentration of PM 2.5, harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs, climbing as high as 598 micrograms per cubic metre. The PM2.5 level was 678 micrograms per cubic meter near Tiananmen Square, the Beijing government said.

The daily maximum exposure to PM2.5 particles recommended by the World Health Organization is 25 micrograms per cubic metre. Chinese authorities were forced to raise the environmental alert to the second highest level – orange.

Beijing pledged previous year that carbon dioxide output would peak by “around 2030” – suggesting at least another decade of growing emissions.

The capital of the world’s most populous nation was blanketed in hazardous, choking smog as climate change talks began in Paris, where China’s leader is among the participants. Though the young, elderly and sick are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, levels this high effect even the healthiest of people. “But I think that they’re hoping that this climate agreement will bring them cleaner air and better environmental conditions across China”. “Those of us who are expats spend money on expensive air filtration systems in our apartments, but most Chinese can’t afford that”.

Air pollution kills an average of 4,000 people a day in China, according to a study by Berkeley Earth, an independent research group funded largely by educational grants, which cited coal burning as the likely principal cause.

Taking it one step further, Microsoft has also developed a way to help consumers and government officials predict pollution levels over the next 48 hours.

Largest emitter of greenhouse gases, leading producer and consumer of coal, China should anyway play a key role in the negotiations in Paris. But that’s really only half the story – coal-fired power plants are also in overdrive since last week’s wintry blast.