Development shift needed to help lift smog

Days of lingering smog covering large parts of China have caused traffic jams and school closures, bringing the country's economic development transformation into sharp focus.

Smog, which started to hit central and eastern areas of the country on Wednesday, was described by He Lifu, chief meteorologist with the China Meteorological Center (CMC), as the severest so far this winter.

Classes were suspended on Thursday and Friday in all middle and primary schools as well as kindergartens in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The municipal government on Wednesday evening had initiated a red emergency response for air pollution.

China has a four-tier warning system for extreme weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection on Wednesday blamed the smog on an accumulation of pollutants caused by adverse weather conditions, vehicle emissions and coal-fired pollution.

However, it has been argued that the heavy smog is simply a reflection of China's economic development, and restructuring of its development model needs to be accelerated.

"Smog and haze are largely attributed to the current development model," said Xie Zhenhua, deputy minister of the National Development and Reform Commission. He said companies cared more about output growth and that environmental protection was being ignored.

Zhou Jun, an official with the environmental protection bureau in Shanghai, said the way China develops should be fundamentally changed in order to reduce the number of smoggy days. He said the current industrial structure and layout plans need to be revised.

In addition, netizens vented their anger by posting photographs of gray surroundings on social networking websites and on messaging apps.

"It is like a disaster film," said netizen "Niu Niu" on her Wechat account, with a picture attached.

Heavy smog has also led to an increase in the number of people with respiratory problems, and a surge in sales of face masks and air purifiers.

The number of patients visiting respiratory departments is 30 percent more than usual, according to Shanghai's health department statistics.

Sales of face masks at online retailers on Taobao.com rose 357 percent over the past week compared with the same period last year.

According to the Actions to Address Climate Change 2013 annual report released last month by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the frequency of smog has increased over the past 50 years.

Data from the CMC also showed that over the last 52 years, 2013 has had the most smoggy days.

The Chinese government unveiled an action plan in September, vowing to cut the density of inhalable particulate matter by at least 10 percent in major cities nationwide by 2017.

PM 2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, should fall by about 25 percent from 2012 levels in Beijing and surrounding provincial areas by 2017, according to the plan.

"Aside from restructuring the economic development model, strict law enforcement is needed to combat air pollution," Xie Zhenhua said.

Although the smog is expected to lift on Sunday, Xie said there is still a long way to go for China in tackling its air pollution.

Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection, said on Thursday that coordination among different ministries must be strengthened to combat air pollution, which is feared to be severe this winter as adverse weather conditions are likely.

Winter typically brings the worst air pollution in China due to an increase in the burning of coal for homes and municipal heating systems.

Zhou made the remarks at the first meeting of the group for inter-ministerial coordination to cut air pollution.

He urged strict control of coal-fired pollution and floating dust, enhanced supervision of enterprises and improved monitoring and warning systems.