How Beijing is Cleaning the Air

China has launched a four-pronged strategy to clean up the air:

1. 1The government commissioned a major study to determine causes of pollution. This showed smog was less from vehicles, more from coal plants, dust and crop-burning
2. 2.All four coal plants in the vicinity of Beijing have been shut down. These will be relocated and replaced with higher tech, lower emitting factories
3. 3November 2015 Plan to Phase Out Crop Burning: 85 per cent of the 900 metric tons of crop stalks will be collected and used by government programme by 2020 for biomass, fiber and pulp
4. Regulating vehicles: Heavy trucks banned from city, registration of new cars limited every month and determined by a lottery. No odd-even ban as study found owners were buying new cars to evade the ban. Huge investment in expanding the already vast Beijing subway and BRT corridor.

Read the full article on Lessons for Delhi, from Beijing @ India Today