After years of costly cleanup, Beijing experienced a rare surge in pollution on Thursday, with the AQI rising to "very unhealthy" levels of 215.
Thick fog is predicted to cover portions of Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, the Sichuan Basin, and Chongqing on Thursday, according to a yellow alert for heavy fog issued by China's national observatory on Wednesday.
Beijing used to have extremely high levels of pollution before the government took a number of actions, including closing and relocating highly polluting enterprises in 2016 at a cost of billions of dollars. These days, haze and poor air quality are uncommon.
Pollution levels have decreased, according to officials, as the city spent more than USD 1 billion switching from coal-fired to electric or natural gas public heating during the winter.
In light of the growing pollution situation in New Delhi, Beijing's efforts to combat excessive pollution have been in the news lately. It provoked discussion about whether the Indian capital should follow Beijing's costly and difficult path to better air quality.
In a post on X on Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy in Delhi outlined some of the actions the Chinese government has taken to reduce pollution, such as closing or moving more than 3,000 heavy businesses and moving Shougang, a significant state-owned steel company, out of the city.
Observers claim that while the causes of Beijing's pollution in the past and Delhi's current pollution differ in terms of sources, location, and seasonal factors, they do overlap in some areas.
While coal-fired power plants, heavy industry, and automotive emissions have historically been the main causes of pollution in Beijing, Delhi's pollution is more structural and multi-sourced, with ongoing emissions from transportation, dust, agriculture, particularly stubble burning, and informal sectors.
Strict enforcement of industrial emissions regulations dramatically decreased PM2.5 concentrations in key Chinese cities, according to researchers at Tsinghua University in China who examined the years of pollution in Beijing.
Critics question whether such enforcement could be repeated in a multi-party democracy like India with court protections for business and other interests, arguing that it was feasible under a one-party administration led by the ruling Communist Party.
The average PM2.5 concentration in Beijing fell to 26.5 micrograms per cubic meter in the first 11 months of this year, a 16.7% year-over-year decline, according to Beijing municipal environmental regulators prior to Thursday's haze.
They reported on Tuesday that the city had 282 days of high air quality during that time, which was 23 more days than during the same period last year.
According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, citing officials, the city has encouraged the wider adoption of new energy vehicles, implemented emissions reduction measures in construction projects, and supported the green transformation of businesses under the "0.1 microgram initiative," among other initiatives.
Chen Tian, the chairman of the municipal ecology and environment bureau, stated at a news conference on Wednesday that Beijing's ecological environment has significantly improved over the last five years.
Beijing's biodiversity, which consists of 7,121 species, has benefited from the four years of pollution reduction. Beijing swifts are migratory birds with a population of over 10,000, and rare species like red-crowned and white-naped cranes, which are protected to the highest level in China, have been seen near the Miyun Reservoir, according to Chen.
