Perilous Times
Beijing smothered in killer smog during UN climate talks
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Oct 7, 2010
China's capital Beijing on Thursday shared the title of most polluted
city in the country, as delegates from around the world worked in
nearby Tianjin towards a deal to combat global warming.
The China Environmental Monitoring Centre rated both Beijing and the
central city of Zhengzhou as having "slightly polluted" air -- a rating
of III2 on scale from I (excellent) to V (hazardous).
The US embassy in Beijing, however, qualified the air as "hazardous" in
its own measurements made available on the popular microblogging site
Twitter (
http://twitter.com/beijingair).
At the joint WTA/ATP China Open in the north of the capital, organisers
were forced to turn on the floodlights on the stadium courts at about
4:00 pm (0800 GMT) due to the poor visibility, an AFP correspondent
witnessed.
The pollution level could not be attributed to Beijing's infamous
traffic jams, as the capital's roads were mainly clear on the last day
of a week-long national holiday.
The talks in Tianjin, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from Beijing, are
part of long-running efforts through the United Nations to secure a
post-2012 treaty to limit global warming and avoid potential
environmental catastrophes.
After being blamed by many in the developed world for derailing a
summit in Copenhagen last year, China has insisted it wants to foster a
spirit of cooperation at this week's talks.
China is now the world's largest source of greenhouse gases and its
emissions continue to increase as its economy expands at near
double-digit pace.
It pledged last year to slow the growth in those emissions by reducing
energy consumption per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels by
2020.
That is essentially a vow of greater energy efficiency that would
likely, however, see emissions continue to increase, and officials have
so far rejected suggestions that Beijing commit to emissions cuts and
outside verification.