Tailored measures will apply to 28 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei areaChina is drafting tailored air pollution control measures for 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as part of a national three-year campaign, the top environmental authority said on Tuesday.A national research center with 1,500 scientists and other experts has been established to study the causes of air pollution and to develop pollution control measures. Meanwhile, 500 researchers have been dispatched to the 28 cities to conduct research and offer guidance for local air pollution-control work, said He Kebin, dean of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University at a news conference organized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.He also said a detailed list has been made of air pollution sources at the county level in the 28 cities, and more research will be done before the final tailored measures are drafted.The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be key in the coming campaign in light of the heavy pollution there. The campaign will focus on transforming the structure of industry, energy and transportation, said Liu Bingjiang, head of air quality management at the ministry.According to the ministry, even though the 28 cities cover no more than 3 percent of the country's territory, they discharge 10 percent of the sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds in the country, as well as 15 percent of the nitric oxide and primary particulates. The key air pollution source for PM2.5 - hazardous fine particles measuring 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller - in the region are produced by coal burning, industrial production and motor vehicles.The three-year campaign is one of the government's latest efforts for air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region after a five-year national campaign brought down the average concentration of PM2.5 by almost 40 percent from 2013 in the region.In Beijing, the average concentration of PM2.5 went down from 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 58 mcg per cu m last year. About 4.7 million households in the rural areas of the 28 cities have converted to clean energy heating sources.Beijing was stricken by heavy smog on Tuesday morning and initiated a yellow-alert, the third-highest under China's four-tier alert system. Liu said that, generally speaking, air quality has improved in the country, but the situation remains pressing.The research of several top climate experts has shown that the monsoon in East Asia is weakening and the lower and middle atmosphere in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be more stable because of global warming. These factors will result in more frequent smog, he said.He added that the annual discharge of many of the air pollutants in the country, including sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds, still amount to more than 10 million metric tons. These discharge amounts need to be cut by more than a half to reach the national standard of PM2.5 - concentration below 35 mcg per cu m. The smog in Beijing is expected to disperse after Wednesday [email protected]wellies and wristbandslivestrong braceletcustom rubber band braceletswristbands onlineadjustable wristbands24 hour wristbands coupon coderubber wristbands in bulk
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange needs to put the hearts of investors at ease over the dual-class shareholding structure to preserve its world market standing and be seen to be fair. Provided to China Daily The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), backed by the government, is making big strides in reforming the rules to allow dual-class shareholding companies to list in the city despite concerns it could undermine the interest of minority shareholders in those companies. Since losing out to New York over the listing of mainland e-commerce giant Alibaba Group a few years ago, the local bourse has been lobbying hard to change the regulations, arguing that the restriction has placed Hong Kong at a distinct disadvantage against rival financial centers in luring new technology companies to float in the special administrative region, particularly those from the Chinese mainland. The regulator's initial resistance melted away when the government openly backed the proposal after it became clear that the SAR had slipped behind New York and Shanghai in the global IPO market rankings. As it is, public consultations on the issue, which will end later this month, are nothing more than a formality. HKEX has insisted that sufficient provisions will be incorporated into the new rules to provide the necessary protection for minority shareholders' interests. But, there are important issues that need to be thrashed out to help clear lingering doubts in the minds of investors. For instance, nothing has been said about whether those dual-class shareholding companies with sufficiently large capitalization will be accepted as constituent stocks in the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index. This is important because if they aren't, then investors will have the choice of staying away from such stocks if they don't feel comfortable with the inherent unfairness of the shareholding structure. When these stocks are admitted into the exclusive club of the index constituent stocks, index fund managers will have no choice, but to include them in their portfolio in proportion to their index weighting. Another point of contention involves the Takeover Code which sets the trigger point of a general offer at a 30-percent holding. That trigger point has to be reset for dual-class shareholding stocks because of the different voting rights of the two classes of shares. The stock exchange is obliged to clarify all the issues that are of concern to investors to preserve its status as an international market that is fair and transparent.
