Beijing issues first pollution red alert

China has a four tier color-coded weather alert system, with red being a warning for the most extreme weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

“We have no choice but to step up preventative measures like wearing a mask outdoors at all times”, he said.

Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first “red alert” over smog levels, BBC News reports citing the state-run Xinhua news agency.

China’s leadership has vowed to crack down on environmental degradation, including the air pollution that blankets many major cities, following decades of unbridled economic growth.

Just last week, Beijing’s traffic authority said it would consider a congestion fee to ease traffic and smog in the city.

The alert means extra measures will be enforced, including closing schools, restricting auto use by odd-even licensing, halting outdoor construction and other polluting industrial activity, and banning fireworks and outdoor barbecues.

Beijing was earlier swathed in choking smog that was almost 24 times safe levels earlier in the week.

“If today is a red alert, then what was it I was seeing last week?” asked one incredulous user.

On Monday evening, Beijing PM2.5 levels were 206 micrograms per cubic metre according to the USA embassy, and 187 according to local authorities, with visibility significantly better than the previous week. A study led by atmospheric chemist Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute and published this year in Nature magazine estimated that 1.4 million people each year die prematurely because of pollution in China. China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, plans to upgrade coal power plants over the next five years to tackle the problem, and says its emissions will peak by around 2030 before starting to decline.