Chinese Officials Urge Reduction of Air Pollution to Minimize Health Risks

Following a report from last week in which Chinese officials issued an "orange alert" for the city's air pollution, the bad news has gotten worse. As of yesterday, China's Director General of the National Center for Climate Change, Li Junfeng, has said the pollution has reached an unbearable stage.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center requested that citizens take precautions in response to the alert last week. Officials suggested that commuters use public transportation and that children as well as the elderly should stay indoors. Li Junfeng believes that China, as the world's biggest carbon emitter, needs to drastically reduce its reliance on coal.

Junfeng compared China's air pollution to "a smoker who needs to quit at once otherwise he will risk getting lung cancer," in this Bloomberg news article. The pollution levels in Beijing reached 237 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter last week. The measurement rose to 239 micrograms at 11 a.m. this morning, indicating that the pollution has only worsened. This particulate matter is the greatest risk to human health.

Because there has been no reduction since Friday, more extreme measures must be taken by the Chinese government. The World Health Organization recommends that particulate matter measurements should remain at 25 for a 24-hour period. Tiananmen Square has averaged a measurement of 228 in the past 24-hour period. As a result, inspection teams have been sent to Beijing to see whether or not local authorities have been taking proper precautions.

China has been working on decreasing levels of major air pollutants. The Ministry of Environmental Protection declared that such levels should be reduced between 5% and 25% by 2017. Ma Jun is the Chief Economist for greater China at Deutsche Bank AG. He agreed with Li Junfeng regarding the seriousness of this issue.

"China should cut heavy industries' share in gross domestic output by 9 percentage points between 2013 and 2030 to meet its pollution-cut target," he said in this Bloomberg news article. He also suggested that they reduce coal energy consumption by 46% in that same time period in order to move toward cleaner energy.

The severity of China's air pollution will most likely remain a consequential issue in the coming weeks, so if you're interested you can keep up with China news by clicking here.