Chinese authorities launch crack-down on urban smog

Businesses in China are to face new rules on air pollution after the State Council published a new strategy designed to tackle rising smog levels across the country.

According to a report in the China Daily newspaper, the new plan will come into force by 2015 and will see provinces and municipalities take a broader, regional
view of air pollution, rather than just a city-wide approach.

Pollution levels will now be monitored at a regional level rather than a municipal one and authorities will then set up a co-ordinated region-wide strategy to tackle the problem.

A similar tactic was employed on an emergency basis during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when many factories in the surrounding area were closed temporarily after the city was still engulfed in smog just hours before the event was due to start.

The new strategy will first be tested in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the region comprising Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province before a potential wider rollout.

These are three of the most heavily industrialised regions in China and all suffer from severe smog for at least a third of the year, according to the Chinese government.

Studies have shown visibility has dropped by 30 per cent to 15km compared to data from the early 1960s in eastern regions of China as a result of air pollution.

Sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide and other particulate matter will all be monitored in an effort made to curb emissions. Coal-consumption caps will also be piloted in some areas under the new strategy.

Measures to prevent and control the pollution of China's 76 million vehicles were also laid out in the government statement, including measures to reduce emissions of new vehicles and to scrap high-emission vehicles.

It is not clear what actual measures the strategy will take to limit the activities of polluting businesses, but tighter standards on factory emissions and forced closure for those who are not compliant with the new rules are expected.

In a further sign of tightening state regulation on the business community, China's financial regulators yesterday ordered banks to review loans to high energy consumption and carbon-intensive industries.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a statement that banks must not grant new loans to projects under construction in industries that are polluting or consuming energy at a level exceeding government guidelines.

The CBRC also instructed banks to enhance financial support for major pollution source control projects, as well as energy-efficiency and emission-cutting projects.