Beijing mayor promises to form environmental police division, crackdown on coal consumption

Record ID: 163482

  • Title: Beijing mayor promises to form environmental police division, crackdown on coal consumption
  • Date: 8th January 2017
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT - DECEMBER 21, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC SHROUDED IN SMOG BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT - DECEMBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) PEDESTRIANS WEARING FACE MASKS WALKING SUN SHINING THROUGH SMOG
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2017 06:27
  • Keywords: China pollution air air quality environment police Beijing meyor Cai Qi coal consumption
  • Location: BEIJING, CHINA
  • City: BEIJING, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0035Y7YTDX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE, EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES TO SEPARATE SOUNDBITES
    Beiing's acting mayor on Saturday (January 7) pledged to form a division of police aimed to combat environmental offenders, state media reported.
    Caiqi, the city's deputy Communist Party chief and acting mayor, made the comments during a briefing with local and state media aimed to address Beijing's choking air pollution.
    "We will establish a division of environmental police. They will impose a harsh crack down hard on illegal criminal activities (which harm) the environment, taking the form of deterrence," Cai said during a CCTV broadcast of the briefing.
    Cai cited that open air barbecues and garbage incineration as two particular areas where law authorities have failed to enforce environmental standards, official Xinhua agency reported.
    Xinhua said that the Beijing government plans to "phase out" another 300,000 high-polluting vehicles in 2017. They will also close 500 low-end manufacturing and polluting factories. The city's only coal-fired plant will also be closed after this year's winter heating season.
    Cai said that the city will cut coal consumption by improving power sources in rural areas which formerly relied on coal, maximise reduction of emissions by the local power industry, and further the development of clean energy consumption, CCTV reported.
    "With these three measures, we can reduce the total amount of coal consumption in the whole city by 30% within the same period, and keep it at the level of 700 tons (per year)," Cai said.
    Beijing residents have struggled with smog over the past week, as China's National Meteorological Centre issued a five-day orange alert for smog, the second highest of the city's four-tier alert system for air pollution.
    China is in the third year of a "war on pollution" to tackle the legacy of more than three decades of untrammelled economic growth, but it has struggled to meet air quality standards or to prevent occurrences of the hazardous smog like the current episode.
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