Choked By Smog, Beijing Creates A New Environmental Police Force (csmonitor.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the Christian Science Monitor: A new police force will crack down on environmental offenders in Beijing, city officials announced Saturday, marking the Chinese government's latest attempt to reduce smog... Other measures included cutting coal use by 30 percent in 2017, shutting down 500 higher-polluting factories and upgrading 2,500 others, phasing out 300,000 higher-polluting older vehicles, and supplying cleaner gas and diesel at fuel stations starting February 15. The announcement came one day after municipal authorities in Beijing announced they would install air purifiers in the city's schools and kindergartens.
Beijing's mayor said that smoke from trash burning and open-air barbecues and even dust from roads "are actually the result of lax supervision and weak law enforcement."

Comments

And Spend $360 billion on Renewables

[Anonymous Coward]

The bigger story is that they are investing $360 billion on renewable energy over the next 4 years.

That's a plan that will not only pay dividends in pollution reduction, it will keep them on the cutting edge of energy technology. An industry that is obviously a growth market because India and Africa both have tons of unmet demand for energy and Chinese companies are going to own that market.

Meanwhile, the US has just voted for more coal. Maybe, if we are lucky, some more fracking too.

The future is bright! (for china)

Beijing city can't fix its pollution itself

[nicolaiplum]

Beijing itself is fairly clean for a developing economy capital. Most of the cars are pretty new, there are not too many two-stroke tuktuks or scooters, etc. There aren't that many factories within city limits, as most were all closed or moved for the 2008 Olympics. The pollution isn't generated in the city. That's why you see the dramatic video online of "smog sweeping in" - it arrives from elsewhere, you can see it at higher levels in the air already, it doesnt'tcome from the street level. It's actually uncanny being in Beijing when the smog is bad because you can't see any source, no "that truck is belching smoke" or "that chimney is putting out smoke". It arrives from out of sight.

The problem is the surrounding Hebei province which has many of the coal and iron ore mines of China, and much heavy industry and processing of the ores using coal. Beiing can't enforce pollution controls in Hebei and the industrialists in Hebei don't care at all while they make money. For a USA equivalent, imagine if if Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey were covered in dirty industrial plant while New York City was trying to improve its air quality. They wouldn't succeed.

It's nice to see Beijing trying to clean up its air, but it won't improve anything until Hebei province has a similar enforcement and it is effective.