On-the-spot fines for drivers as northern China gets tough on pollution
Environmental authorities are joining forces to limit vehicle emissions, which are one of the main causes of northern China’s serious air pollution problems
Drivers will be given on-the-spot fines if found to be using vehicles that exceed emission standards in Beijing and surrounding areas.
The tough new measure is part of plans agreed by the environmental authorities who are joining forces to tackle northern China’s serious air pollution problems, Xinhua reported yesterday.
The main sources of the area’s pollution are the exhaust emissions from Beijing’s more than 5.5 million motor vehicles, together with coal burning emissions of factories in neighbouring regions, dust storms from the north and local construction dust.
The joint efforts to control vehicle emission pollution were agreed at a meeting of the environmental departments of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Inner Mongolia held in the capital yesterday.
Beijing and the surrounding areas had often hit by heavy smog since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ended last month, before a strong cold front arrived on last Sunday to clear up the skies.
The capital’s motor vehicles account for 86 per cent of the locally emitted carbon monoxide, said Li Kunsheng, head of the motor vehicle emission management division of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
Li said car exhausts cause 31.1 per cent of local emissions of PM 2.5 – fine particles found in smoke and haze, called particulate matter, measuring less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, which cause the most damage to lungs, Xinhua reported.