The UN has listed Taipei among Asian cities with "excellent" capability to manage air quality, according to a report released recently.
The other six cities with "excellent" air quality management capability are Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, the report said.
The study, focusing on the air pollution of 22 Asian cities, was backed by the UN Environment Programme and was published ahead of the first governmental meeting on urban air quality opening on Wednesday in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
The study rated Beijing, Busan and New Delhi as having "good" air quality management capability.
Colombo, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila and Mumbai obtained a "moderate" mark for their management capability.
Meanwhile, Dhaka, Hanoi, Surabaya and Kathmandu were evaluated as having a "limited" capability to manage air quality, the report said.
The report said that although most of these Asian cities have been able to reduce the emissions of key pollutants, pollution caused by fine particulate matter remains a problem owing to the rapid rise in the number of motor vehicles.
In particular, the concentrations of particulate matter up to 10 micrometers in size are "serious" in Beijing, Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Kolkata, New Delhi and Shanghai, the report said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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