Beijing factories shut amid smog nightmare

Beijing ordered hundreds of factories to shut and allowed children to skip school as choking smog reached over 25 times safe levels on Dec. 1, casting a cloud over China's participation in Paris climate talks.

A thick grey haze shrouded the capital with concentrations of PM 2.5, harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs, as high as 634 micrograms per cubic metre.
 
The reading given by the US embassy dwarfs the maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation, which is just 25 micrograms per cubic metre.   

Swathes of northern China were hit and levels in Jinan, a provincial capital hundreds of kilometres away, reached over 400.    

Authorities in Beijing ordered the closure of 2,100 highly polluting businesses, the state-run China Daily said, and advised citizens to stay indoors.
 
The capital told primary and middle schools to stop outdoor activities and gave students permission to stay home, adding the city would provide online instruction, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
 
Airlines cancelled over 30 flights from Beijing and Shanghai, many to highly polluted Shaanxi province which is a key coal producer.
 
The smog nightmare came after Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed "action" on greenhouse emissions at the climate change summit in Paris.
 
Most of the country's greenhouse gas emissions come from coal burning which spikes in winter along with demand for heating and is the main cause of smog.
 
Xi repeated China's pledge that emissions would peak by "around 2030" but told the summit that poor nations should not have to sacrifice economic growth.
 
China is estimated to have emitted nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as the...