Greenpeace Links Beijing’s Air Pollution Surge to Steel Factories<br />16, 2017<br />Despite promises to cut steel overcapacity, China actually brought more steel production online last year, resulting in a surge in<br />air pollution in northern China, especially around Beijing, according to a report released this week by Greenpeace East Asia.<br />el demand and steel prices." The report said most of the capacity<br />that was cut came from closures of plants that were privately owned or owned by central state enterprises, which suggested that local state-owned enterprises and governments were protecting their own interests. that created a miniboom in construction, artificially inflating ste<br />Stimulus policies last year also led to an increase in coal prices during one period, though climate change researchers say they expect data to show<br />that overall coal consumption in China declined in 2016 compared with 2015.<br />As a result, the net increase in operating steel capacity for 2016 was 36.5 million metric tons, the report said.<br />The growth in operating capacity was more than twice the total steel making capacity of Britain, the report said.<br />In 2013, the central government announced goals to cut coal use in three major population centers in China, including<br />in the large region around Beijing, to try to bring down levels of air pollution, among the worst in the world.<br />The increase in steel production, which is powered by the burning of coal, also means<br />that levels of greenhouse gas emissions from that sector almost certainly grew last year, compared with 2015 levels.
