Beijing Leaders Talk Climate in Paris, While Residents Sit in Record Smog

Schools suspended outdoor activities yesterday and polluting factories were required to reduce production.

The situation was particularly unsafe in southern Beijing, where airborne particles smaller than PM2.5, which means 2.5 microns in diameter, were measured at up to 900 micrograms per cubic meter – 35 times the recommended level.

Beijing’s severe pollution follows a bout of record-breaking smog in northeastern China last month, when PM2.5 levels reached 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre in the city of Shenyang – the highest ever registered. The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that smog levels have reached 24 times the level that is considered safe for humans.

Visibility has been significantly reduced, causing traffic jams on some inter-city expressways and forcing closures on others.

“I could also see there were lots of people still not wearing face masks”, Dong Liansai, the group’s head of climate and energy project in China told The Telegraph.

The ministry of environmental protection has sent several inspection teams to supervise the implementation, saying on Monday that at least 11 construction sites and cement-making plants continued to work despite the restriction.

Beijing on Sunday, Nov. 29 issued its highest smog alert of the year following a… Yesterday, more than 200 expressways were closed and residents were advised to stay indoors as China grappled with the worst smog of the year.

On Chinese social media, some people have questioned why the government has not issued the highest warning – a red alert – which would restrict the number of cars on the road and shut down schools completely. Many said they wanted to leave Beijing and others also criticized the government for inaction. China formed a five-year plan to cut pollutants in 2010, which involved shrinking levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and ammonia nitrogen in the air.

Beijing has vowed to clean up its notoriously foul air and had been doing fairly well prior to the latest stretch of pollution, with generally cleaner air than in 2014.

But the city was hit by unusually cold days and early snow in November, and winter heating was turned on.

An orange smog alert, first issued on Sunday, remained in place yesterday, closing highways in nine cities, including the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, Hebei traffic police said.

Chinese researchers have identified pollution as a major source of unrest around China and much of the online discussion about the smog was serious.

The pollution is expected to clear on Wednesday when a cold front approaches Beijing.