Highways and school playgrounds were closed in Beijing yesterday due to heavy pollution, as China ramps up coal production and faces scrutiny of its environmental record at make-or-break international climate talks.
World leaders have gathered in Scotland this week for COP26 negotiations billed as one of the last chances to avert catastrophic climate change, although Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) made a written address instead of attending in person.
China — the world’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change — has ramped up coal output after supply chains have over the past few months been roiled by an energy crunch owing to strict emissions targets and record prices for fossil fuels.
Photo: AFP
A thick haze of smog yesterday blanketed swathes of northern China, with visibility in some areas reduced to less than 200m, the country’s weather forecaster reported.
Authorities in Beijing blamed the pollution on “unfavorable weather conditions and regional pollution spread” as schools in the capital — which is to host the Winter Olympics in February next year — were ordered to stop physical education classes and outdoor activities.
Stretches of highways to major cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Harbin were closed due to poor visibility.
Pollutants detected in the morning by a monitoring station at the US embassy in Beijing reached levels defined as “very unhealthy” for the general population.
Levels of fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), which penetrate deep into human lungs and cause respiratory illnesses, were 220 micrograms per cubic meter — far above the WHO recommended limit of 15 micrograms per cubic meter.
The smog is likely to persist until at least today in the evening, city officials said.
China earlier this week said that it had increased daily coal production by more than 1 million tonnes to ease an energy shortage that had in the past few months led to factory closures.
Rapid industrialization has made China no stranger to air pollution, although severe smog episodes have become less frequent over the past few years, as authorities have increasingly prioritized environmental protection.
Beijing has pledged to bring emissions of planet-heating carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and reduce them to net-zero by 2060.
China on Wednesday hit back at criticism by US President Joe Biden, saying “actions speak louder than words,” after the US president accused Beijing of not showing leadership to combat climate change.
China generates about 60 percent of its energy from burning coal.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS