China’s National Meteorological Center (NMC) has warned of heavy smog in the capital Beijing and other provinces in northern China such as Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi. It issued an orange alert for polluted air on Saturday.
China’s color code alerts include red – as the most dangerous and lethal, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
The air pollution will last until Monday by which time it will be dispersed by a cold weather front.
The smog warning comes despite stern measures from Chinese authorities to battle air pollution. In Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province for example, factories which are heavy polluters have been shut down until the end of 2016 while cars have been forced to follow an alternate access schedule.
For its part, Beijing will ban high-emission vehicles starting mid-December when the city normally experiences severe smog, Chinese officials have said.
According to the Chinese capital’s newly revised extreme weather emergency response mechanism, set to come into effect on December 15, these vehicles will be restricted from roads when the city issues red or orange smog alerts – the city’s two most serious weather and pollution alerts.
The city will also bar these high-emission vehicles completely on week days starting next year in a bid to bring down auto exhaust emissions which make up over 31 per cent of the city’s air pollution.
The ban starting next year will be applied to Euro 1 and Euro 2 standards for exhaust emissions. These are European Union emission standards that apply to passenger vehicles, light trucks and motorcycles.
