Beijing’s air pollution spikes to frightening levels as Paris climate talks begin

Beijing is experiencing its worst air pollution this year, with monitoring sites throughout the city reporting extremely hazardous levels of pollutants.

Annual PM2.5 concentrations in Taiwan have averaged between 30 and 40 micrograms per cubic meter, much higher than the US’ average concentration of 15 micrograms per cubic meter, suggesting an urgent need to impose more active PM2.5 control measures, Chan said. On Monday, the air quality index measured at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reached a staggering 611 for small particulate matter. In 2013, pollution in Shanghai reached off-the-charts levels, forcing children and the elderly to stay indoors and cancelling flights and sporting events.

Sun Feng, from the Environmental Protection Bureau, says the snow which hit Beijing last week is partly to blame.

In Paris, Xi told the climate change conference that China wants to “strive to achieve” significant reductions in Carbon dioxide emissions within two decades.

This is the first time this year the authorities have raised the alert level to orange, second only to red. Since then, 23 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have had air pollution readings of at least 200, which were deemed as seriously polluted and hazardously polluted under the mainland system.

The smog is affecting 23 cities in northern China and stretches 204,634 square miles across the country – an area bigger, Quartz points out, than Spain or California.

Delhi’s air quality drops dramatically during winter when thousands of poor residents light fires to keep warm, and cloud cover traps the pollution from diesel trucks.

A woman wearing a face mask walks through a shopping and office complex amid heavy pollution and fog in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015.

Beijing smog is now trending as the fourth-most real- time keyword search on the microblogging site Sina Weibo, with 220,000 searches. The readings far exceeded the national standard of 75 micrograms per cubic meter. “I will consider moving to Shenzhen” for clean air, said Xiang, who has pharyngitis.

Most of the pollution comes from burning coal – which supplies about 65 percent of China’s energy needs.