The Chinese capital began today to take measures corresponding to the activation of the red alert pollution, the first to be enacted in the country, which wants to prove he is serious about the problem and at the same time will be a test of its ability to manage it.
Active since 07:00 local (17:00 hour Monday in Mexico) 12:00 Thursday (22:00 hours in Mexico), Beijing experiencing an unprecedented representing live under red alert for contamination since this set of four colors (red, the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue) was launched in 2013.
” We are taking active measures “, said a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, Hua Chunying, who said that China is” still a developing country “who” paid the price “for decades enrichment.
The measures mark a red alert figure private cars travel only on alternate days and the prohibition of hitting the road for heavy trucks, while public transport has extended hours and increased its services to counter the restrictions.
In addition, the works are suspended and polluting factories have reduced or stopped their production, including power generation, steel and cement production and coke.
A package that, for now, merely to relieve the heavy regular traffic of the metropolis, also reduced by the recommendation to primary and secondary schools to suspend classes and the request to companies and government institutions to allow flexible workers schedules.
Despite the measures, pollution at 18.00 local time (10.00 GMT) showed 400 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5 particles are most harmful to health–the according meter World Air Quality Index, a project based in Beijing, more than fifteen times above the maximum of 25 micrograms recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This, however, is a lower rate than those achieved last week, when there were three consecutive days of 450 to 666 micrograms, the worst concentrations throughout 2015, without being passed orange alert.
This contrast has led many to wonder why this time pequinesas authorities have decided to activate itself on red alert, but last week the condition imposed last spring to declare once pollution levels were maintained on 200 micrograms for more than three days was also met.
“The last time was due to activate the red,” says Efe Ma Jun, one of the most prominent environmental activists in China, who believes that, to make amends, “now they do.”
Organizations like Greenpeace criticized the inaction of the authorities in Beijing during the peak of pollution of last week, which coincided with the start of the climate summit in Paris (cop21), where environment ministers are trying to reach a universal agreement against global warming before Friday.
With the summit still running, Ma said that now the Beijing authorities also seek to “demonstrate the government’s resolve” Chinese to combat pollution and climate change which share the use of coal as one of its causes.
While the red alert sends an appropriate message when China also pledged to play a key role in achieving an agreement in Paris, the authorities Chinese have yet to be seen whether the current measures are sufficient to curb pollution affecting mainly the north.
“It’s the beginning, in the future there will be more. But it is an important start, “said Efe Boqiang Lin, director of the Energy Research Center of Xiamen University.
A good start today WHO also welcomed in a statement, in the it “welcomes the decision (Beijing) to act and recognize the problem”, adding that means, above all, that “the authorities (Chinese) are being taken seriously air quality.”
Ma thinks so too, but points to Efe that “we must improve transparency” and communication between cities and provinces, and that although Beijing has reduced the consumption of coal and closed some factories, “in the last pollution cases wine around. “
For now, waiting for a cold front with sustained winds pollution clearance on Thursday, giving little room to see the effectiveness of the measures, Hua stressed today that the red alert “emergency highlights the fight against global warming and our determination in it.”
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