Air Pollution - Beijing

Question 1

Where is Beijing located?

Answer 1

• Located in North China at the northern tip of the North China Plain
• Capital city of China

Question 2

What is the population of Beijing?

Answer 2

• Over 21 million residents
• Worlds most populous national capital city as well as China’s second largest city after Shanghai.
• Beijing Municipality consists of eight city districts, eight suburban districts and two rural countries.

Question 3

Coal pollution in Beijing…

Answer 3

• Coal for heating, cooking and industry and most of the coal is poor quality and contains large amounts to sulphur
• The air of often heavily polluted by coal dust, especially in winter when heating is required and during temperature inversions.
• Just over 60% of Beijing’s total energy consumption is coal, of which manufacturing consumes 70% and domestic households about 20%.
• Government officials propose that in the decades ahead the quality of coal available for residents is to be improved by encouraging people to replace their coal stoves with gas appliances, however only 15% have replaced coal with gas for heating.

Question 4

Vehicle pollution in Beijing…

Answer 4

• Motor vehicles produce congestion as in most major cities despite massive programs of road and expressway construction.
• Exhaust fumes from cars produce nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide. NOx have risen markedly with the increase in numbers of motor vehicles in Beijing. Highest at traffic intersections and along major roads.
• Carbon monoxide is produced by cars and by incomplete combustion of coal in small coal stoves.

Question 5

Urban heat island in Beijing…

Answer 5

• The solution to this problem is stricter standards of pollution emission, especially from heavy industry in Beijing.
• The difference in temperatures in a heat island causes movements of air because of the formation of convection currents. Thus, air rises in the city centre, bringing in pollutants from outer industrial suburbs as air flows in from the cooler surroundings.

Question 6

What is the Three North Shelter Forest Program (Great Green Wall of China)?

Answer 6

A series of human planted windbreaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in China, designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert and provide timber to the local population. The program started in 1978, and is planned to be completed around 2050, at which point it will be 4,500 long.

Question 7

How is air pollution combated in Beijing?

Answer 7

• Beijing’s authorities have committed themselves to cleaning up the atmosphere over Beijing. They close factories about a week before any major events such as an international conference or sporting event. To tackle the air pollution issues in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics cars were restricted to an ‘odds and evens’ system in which only cars with licence plates ending in an odd number/even number are permitted on the roads. Clearly closing factories is not a long-term solution but Beijing’s authorities have made significant strides to improving air quality.
• Early attempts to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads of Beijing occurred in 2008 when vehicle use was restricted between the hours of 8pm and 7am on a weekday. This had little effect on pollution levels however as vehicle numbers still rose.
• A new vehicle quota was introduced in Beijing in a further attempt to reduce the impact on air pollution. A total of 240,000 new vehicle registrations was permitted in 2011 to 2013, through a vehicle lottery. This number was reduced to 150,000 in 2014, with the aim of capping the total number of vehicles on the roads of Beijing.

Question 8

What is Benzo(a)-pyrene (BaP)?

Answer 8

One of the most worrying aspects is the high concentration of benzo(a)-pyrene (BaP), a chemical which induces lung cancer, and which is produced by heavy industry without adequate pollution controls. The incidence of lung cancer in Beijing in 1958 was 7.9 people per 100,000, by 2010 is was 75 per 100,000.

There are three concentrations of BaP in Beijing:
- In the centre of the city
- Around the Capital Iron and Steel Works in the western suburbs
- In an area near a coking plant in Beijing’s eastern suburbs.

The health risks are greatest in the ‘heating season’ when an area of 500 square kilometres of Beijing exceed the accepted standard of 1 milligram per 100 cubic meters of BaP.

Question 9

Why was a red alert issued in Beijing?

Answer 9

• A red alert – the first in Beijing was issues as smog engulfed the city in December 2015.
• The alert began on Tuesday at 7am, and as a result millions of factories and construction sites were shut down.
• Beijing has been one of the most polluted cities in the world for many years. There are many different sources of pollutants that are affecting Beijing.
• Beijing is home to over 5 million vehicles and in 2013, it was estimated that vehicles in Beijing consumed over 7 million tonnes of field, producing 900,000 tons on emissions, including 70,000 tons of hydrocarbons and over 80,000 tons of nitrogen oxides.
• In 2004, the city had 2 million vehicles, but by 2010 this figure has reached 5 million.