24 Of 28 Chinese Cities Fail To Meet Air Quality Targets In October
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Only four of 28 northern Chinese cities met their air quality targets in October, official data showed on Tuesday, raising questions about the country’s ability to reduce the smog that typically develops during the winter.
The 28 cities in and around the smog-prone Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region were ordered in August to draw up plans to thin traffic and reduce industrial activity from October 2017 to March 2018, part of efforts to slash concentrations of hazardous airborne particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) by at least 15 percent year-on-year.
But the Ministry of Environmental Protection said only the capital Beijing, together with Baoding and Shijiazhuang in neighboring Hebei province, as well as Anyang in Henan province, actually met their targets for last month.
"According to forecasts, overall winter weather conditions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will not be favorable, with the ability to disperse atmospheric pollution relatively weak, making the targets even more difficult to achieve," the ministry said in a bulletin published on its website (www.mep.gov.cn). Beijing is aiming to cut PM2.5 by as much as 25 percent over the winter months as it strives to meet a target to bring concentrations down to less than 60 micrograms per cubic meter for the whole of 2017.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution/china-says-24-out-of-28-cities-fail-to-meet-october-smog-target-idUSKBN1DE0YH
