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        Beijing Smog Puts China's Anti-Pollution Policies Under Scrutiny

   by Michael Lipin

   The Chinese government has announced several emergency steps to combat
   the worsening air pollution in the capital

   Record levels of smog in Beijing in recent days have led China to
   acknowledge an urgent need for changes to its rapid economic growth
   model.

   The Chinese government has announced several emergency steps to combat
   the worsening air pollution in the capital and has taken other actions
   in recent years. But some Chinese policies seem to have made matters
   worse, and others appear to lack proper enforcement.

   Under one emergency measure introduced on Sunday, Beijing's
   environmental protection bureau suspended construction at 28 building
   sites around the city.

   China's official Xinhua news agency said the bureau also ordered 54
   manufacturers to reduce their emissions of polluting gases by 30
   percent. It said one factory operated by Beijing Hyundai Motor Company
   shut down completely.
   ''While such steps may help to reduce the smog in the short run, China
   faces a much bigger challenge in dealing with the root causes of the
   problem. Some of those are beyond the government's immediate control,
   such as environmental conditions that trap pollutants in the
   atmosphere.

   The current smog crisis in Beijing came about when an unusual winter
   weather system brought fog and light winds to the region. That
   combination prevented the smog from dispersing, but forecasters expect
   the winds to pick up by Wednesday.

   Too many skyscrapers

   Ping He, head of the Washington-based International Fund for China's
   Environment, said another problem for the Chinese capital is the
   density of its skyscrapers.

   "There is not enough space and green land between the buildings, so the
   trapped pollution does not have room to flow around," he told VOA's
   Michael Lipin. "That definitely has some impact on the air quality in
   the downtown area."

   Beyond the city center, the mountains around Beijing act as a barrier
   that contains the smog.

   The Chinese government has focused its anti-smog policies on the
   man-made causes that emit pollutants into the air.

   One of the key causes is exhaust fumes from Beijing's five million
   vehicles, many of them private cars, whose popularity is on the rise.

   Dominic Meagher, an economist with the China Policy Institute in
   Beijing, said authorities have tried to control the number of new cars
   on the streets.

    "Sometimes it can take up to two years to drive a new car, just
   because you have to go into a lottery to get a license plate," he told
   VOA. "So the authorities do a lot to limit traffic."

   Too many older vehicles

   Ping He said the Beijing municipality also has tightened standards for
   vehicle emissions. "Beijing has among the highest emission standards in
   China for new vehicles," he said, "compatible with those of the
   European Union."

   But the environmental fund president said the Chinese capital also is
   filled with exhaust from many older, higher-emission vehicles that the
   government has not yet replaced.

   Coal burning also is a major contributor to Beijing's smog problem.

   Chinese power plants burn the fossil fuel throughout the year to
   generate electricity for the capital's rapidly growing infrastructure.
   Beijing residents also burn coal at home to keep themselves warm in
   winter.

   Jennifer Turner, a China environment analyst at Washington's Woodrow
   Wilson Center, said China has done an "admirable" job of moving
   coal-fired power plants out of Beijing since before the 2008 Olympics.
   She adds that China also has been developing new coal plants that are
   among the most efficient in the world.

   Growth causes more pollution

   "The challenge is that that they already had a lot of coal plants, and
   they have been building more," Turner said. "Electricity use has been
   surging for the past 20 years and China needs the energy to keep its
   economy going."

   China also has relocated high-polluting factories such as steel
   producers away from Beijing during the past decade. In their place,
   Ping He said, many small manufacturing plants have emerged in the
   region. "The emissions (of those factories) are subject to strict
   environmental controls and standards, but they are not implemented
   effectively," he said.

   Turner said one weakness of those regulations is that some reporting of
   emissions data by manufacturers is voluntary.

   "The Chinese ministry of environmental protection's data-reporting
   system needs more teeth, and the companies need to be made more
   accountable," she said. The analyst noted that recent improvements in
   the quantity of air-pollution data that the government releases to the
   public may help to achieve that accountability.

   Since last year, China has been releasing information about the most
   dangerous air pollution particles in more than 70 cities-  and started
   issuing hourly updates in some cases.

   "Having hourly data limits the opportunity for data to be tampered
   with, and it really can be quite empowering to the communities," Turner
   said.

    "Chinese citizens and environmental groups are ever more eagerly
   playing the role of watchdog. That could really help the government in
   enforcing regulations and imposing fines on companies exceeding their
   emission limits."

   Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
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   n-policies-under-scrutiny/1583870.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/beijing-smog-puts-china-anti-pollution-policies-under-scrutiny/1583870.html