Air quality a hot topic

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Air pollution has been one of the hottest topics in Shanghai's two sessions this year, as residents living in the Yangtze River Delta breathed the most polluted air in five years during the past two weeks.

The delta is working on a collaborative treatment plan on air pollution to reduce carbon emissions by 6 percent by 2015 in the region, according to Zhang Quan, director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau. Zhang attended the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, the city's top legislature's annual meeting that opened on Sunday.

Zhang said the plan will be released in the third quarter.

Transportation is a main source of air pollution in Shanghai. Twenty percent of the pollution is caused by vehicles, the same amount as by factory emission, said Zhang.

Shanghai's air quality index reached 250 several times in the past two weeks, indicating heavy pollution.

Fifty-eight of the 72 monitoring stations in Jiangsu province reported medium to heavy pollution on Saturday, and the province's capital, Nanjing, reported the worst air quality in five years.

Wu Jiang, a deputy of the congress, said: "The recent smog was the inevitable result of the rapid industrialization of China, which reminded the related departments to pay more attention to control pollution."

The monitoring system of environmental protection should be restricted by regulations forcing factories to carry out regular check-ups of sources of pollution, added Wu, who is also vice-president of Tongji University.

"The central government should issue policies such as energy saving subsidies to encourage more enterprises to apply advanced renewable technologies to minimize the waste of energy," said Wu.

Chen Li, a member of the city's political advisory body, submitted a proposal to improve the city's air quality, calling for government organs to use new-energy vehicles to reduce emissions.

She also urged the authority to subsidize outdoor workers - such as sanitation workers, construction workers and traffic police - who are more likely "to be exposed to the polluted air".

Some experts are calling for more atmospheric pollution monitoring and improving early warnings for air pollution.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.