Beijing officials expect healthy air by 2030
September 11, 2014 Category Environment, Pollution
The Chinese capital’s fine-particulate pollutant intensity is expected to drop to the internationally recognized safe level of no more than 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 16 years, Pan Tao of the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, said. “Improving air quality in the city is not going to be an easy task,” Pan said during the 2014 Beijing International Academic Symposium on Urban Environment in July. The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said that the intensity of PM2.5 in 2013 was 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter-still two and a half times above the standard. The Bureau’s recently released plan said the intensity of PM2.5 is to be reduced to 60 mg/cu m by 2017, which is still harmful to people’s health, but achieving the goal is challenging, Pan said. “The current pollution emission is far beyond the environmental capacity of the city, and any adverse climate condition would easily result in smoggy days,” he added. “The key to current air quality improvement lies in emission reduction.” Many companies in Beijing, especially those with coal-fired boilers and cement plants, have been fined for excessive smoke exhaust, lacking or having faulty emission-monitoring facilities and leaving coal dumps uncovered in the past few months, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said. The amount of sulfur dioxide in Beijing’s air has been reduced by 77% since 1998, while nitrogen dioxide has been cut by 30% and PM10 by 42%.
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