Party mouthpiece People’s Daily claimed China would reduce emissions of major pollutants in the energy sector by 60% by 2020 in the wake of a front of choking pollution that the Ministry of Environmental Protection asserted was caused by “unfavorable” weather, Reuters reported. Air pollution in northern China typically worsens during winter as coal-fired urban heating systems are switched on and low wind speeds fail to disperse carcinogenic haze. While the pledge comes in the middle of a United Nations climate change summit in Paris, an EU official – speaking on condition of anonymity – said that Wednesday’s announcement seemed to relate more to air pollutants than greenhouse gas emissions.
China Economic Review