Pollution plan for APEC summit
Print Edition
SMOG-PRONE Beijing will adopt a special air pollution control plan for next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, featuring the temporary closure of factories in the event of a pollution warning, local authorities said yesterday.
Enterprises and coal-consuming furnaces on the capital’s blacklist of polluters will be ordered to suspend operations or reduce production during the meetings, said Li Lixin, an air pollution official with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
The plan also includes mandatory construction site closures, added Li.
In the worst-case situation, neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province will join in the emergency action under a mechanism the three regions established last year, said Li.
Some steel mills in Hebei, China’s largest steel producer, said they have received notice from authorities asking them to reduce or suspend production during the meetings to be held in early November.
Beijing has tightened air pollution controls this year with more severe punishment for violations.
The capital handled 1,149 air pollution-related cases between January and September with fines of more than 25.78 million yuan (US$4.2 million), said Zhong Chonglei, chief of the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Team.
The number of cases has increased more than 74 percent and the fines have doubled, according to Zhong.
“Violators have to pay a much higher price than before,” said Zhong.
Although air quality in the 13 most polluted cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has reportedly improved in the first nine months compared to the same period last year — with levels of sulfur dioxide and PM 2.5 dropping, concerns remain following three days of smog from October 8 in Beijing.
Li said that air quality updates will be issued quickly if air quality worsens.
If the air quality index is expected to top 200 for three consecutive days, an orange alert — the second-highest in China’s four-level warning system — will be issued, but the city will put into place pollution control measures usually called for under a red alert, the highest level.
Such measures include banning the use of 70 percent of government vehicles and restricting the use of private vehicles based on even- and odd-numbered license plates, among others.
APEC’s 21 members include the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
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