China's environment minister has pushed for stricter monitoring and rules on automobiles with excessive exhaust emissions in a bid to improve air quality.
Emissions from vehicles such as heavy diesel trucks and old cars are big contributors to air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, said Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, while inspecting an auto emission management center in Beijing on Friday.
Beijing municipality is working to build a city-level environmental monitoring system over automobiles to comprehensively control vehicle emissions.
Traffic in heavy smog in Beijing / CFP Photo
Chen called for the establishment of a national regulation platform for automobile emissions to be accelerated alongside a technical support system, as well as a network that monitors high-emission vehicles at all times and from all angles.
He said drivers or owners of vehicles with excessive exhaust emissions should be severely punished in accordance with the law and relevant punishment details will be made public.
Automobile emissions contribute 31.1 percent of Beijing's average PM2.5 density. With a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, the particulate matter is a primary factor behind hazardous smog.
According to government reports, Beijing's average PM2.5 density in 2016 was 9.9 percent lower than 2015. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is currently conducting an Air Quality Review of 2017 Quarter 1 in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the surrounding 18 cities.
(With inputs from Xinhua)
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