Beijing calls time on ‘blue sky days’

Beijing has finally decided to cancel its controversial "Blue Sky Day" program and replace it with a more useful local pollution index, according to environment authorities yesterday.

In 2011, the capital saw 286 blue sky days, a 21 percent increase on 2010, according to the Beijing Environmental Statement for 2011, released Monday by Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB).

The number of blue sky days will no longer be reported, and the EPB will monitor PM 2.5 pollution levels, Yu Jianhua, director of the office of the atmosphere at the EPB, told the Beijing Daily.

Climate conditions differ over the city, said Yu, and the "Blue Sky Day" index which monitored the average air quality of the whole city, failed to describe localized air quality.

Zhou Rong, climate and energy campaign director at Greenpeace, believes the decision to cancel the index is wise.

"The program was based on the air quality index, which did not include the much smaller particles like PM 2.5," Zhou said.

Zhou agreed that residents need to know about the environment where they live and work, rather than a citywide average. Monitoring the smaller 2.5 particulate matter will reflect this.

She suggested the government could detail the PM 2.5 index at street level, and give residents tips and suggestions before they leave home.

Although initial PM 2.5 readings might be disappointing, there will be improvements, as Beijing has adopted measures to reduce vehicle emissions and has improved its winter heating system, said Zhou.

Residents seem to care more about improvements in the environment rather than the changes to monitoring measures.

"I'm expecting a real improvement in air quality," said Liu Nina, a student in Haidian district.

There will be 35 PM 2.5 stations, with real-time updates by year's end, said Liu Xianshu, director of the EPB's monitoring department.