Beijing mulls lower air pollution triggers for car bans

Odd-even car bans might become more frequent in Beijing later this year if the capital goes ahead with proposed changes to emergency air pollution measures, according to mainland media reports yesterday.

The reports came as Beijing's environmental monitors said that over half of the city's air pollutants came from neighbouring regions on heavy-smog days last year, well above previous years when the proportion was between a quarter and a third.

Wang Bin, from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, said the government was considering whether to lower the bar for emergency measures, including ones that ban cars from use on alternate days depending on the last digit of their number plates, reported.

Under existing codes, odd-even car bans are imposed when the city issues a red pollution alert - the highest on the four-tier scale. But Wang said that under the proposed changes, the ban could come into effect with an orange alert, one step down from red. The changes were expected in October at the earliest, he said.

Factories should also idle 30 per cent of their output during red alerts, but Beijing has not issued a red alert since its emergency system was launched in October 2013, even when pollution readings went off the charts.

Wang said the capital was learning from pollution curbs imposed during last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, when Beijing severely restricted car use for 10 days and shut down more than 4,000 factories in surrounding provinces.