Beijing issued on Friday its second ever “red alert” ahead of what is predicted to be a blanket of heavy smog stretching across a large part of the country’s north, Reuters reported. The bad air is expected to roll out on Saturday evening and persist until Tuesday.
China’s National Meteorological Centre said the smog would stretch from Xian, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, across central China, through Beijing, and up into the northeastern cities of Shenyang and Harbin.
Videos by VICE
Visibility in the hardest hit areas, like Beijing, could drop to about a half mile, the government agency said.
The smog could be worse than last week, when the city government of Beijing issued its first red alert, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
“Parts of North China will see the worst smog so far this year from Saturday,” it said, citing the National Meteorological Centre.
A red alert is issued when the government believes air quality will surpass a level of 200 on an index that measures various pollutants for at least three days. In Beijing, a red alert prompts the use of an odd-even license plate system that removes half the vehicles in the city from roads on any given day. It also recommends schools to close and outdoor construction to be halted.
“I’m very concerned about the pollution, I think the government needs to put more effort into solving this,” Cheng Xianke, a 34-year-old Beijing software developer, told Reuters.
Xinhua cited the country’s over-reliance on coal for energy production and manufacturing as a cause for the smog.
“From a long-term perspective, the improvement in air quality cannot just rely on temporary production suspensions or limitations for certain companies,” it said.
“Fundamentally it needs to come from an adjustment in industry and energy structure, as cutting emissions from the source is the permanent solution.”
Related: India Borrows a Page From China’s Playbook in Dealing With Air Pollution
China’s lingering air pollution woes occur just a week after diplomats from nearly 200 nations secured an international climate change agreement that aims to reign in global temperature rise by dramatically reducing the burning of fossil fuels in just a matter of decades.
A key breakthrough in negotiations came when the United States and China — the world’s leading emitters — jointly agreed in late 2014 to dramatically reduce their levels of carbon dioxide pollution.
Follow VICE News on Twitter: @vicenews
