BEIJING (EFE) .- 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 problem and that also will be a test of its ability to manage it.
Active since 0700 the local (23.00 GMT Monday) until 12.00 Thursday (0400 GMT), Beijing experienced an unprecedented what supposed to 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.
Among the measures that the red warning mark figure that 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 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, is limited to relieve the heavy traffic of the metropolis usual, also reduced by the recommendation to primary and secondary schools to suspend classes and official request to companies and institutions to allow for flexitime its workers.
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 to the 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 is, however, a lower rate than those achieved last week, when they registered three consecutive days between 450 and 666 micrograms, the worst concentrations throughout 2015 without passing 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 tax requirement is also met last spring to declare once pollution levels were maintained on 200 micrograms for more than three days .
“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 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 trying to reach 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 change climate, 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 at Chinese authorities 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 resolve it.”
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