'Blue Sky Days' Over for Beijing

Beijing will no longer use ‘blue sky days’ as a measure of air quality, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

 

This comes days after China demanded for foreign diplomatic missions to stop their own air pollution readings.

 

Many Chinese cities, including Beijing, have used the ‘Blue Sky system’ for air quality classification over the past fourteen years. Particulate matter under 10 micrometers, or PM10, would be recorded daily, with the best days then tallied.

 

Yearly goals for these total ‘blue sky days’ had been set as a measure for improving air quality in Beijing, which is notorious for its bad pollution.

 

While, according to state statistics, the amount of such days have increased since the program’s inception, the system has been criticized as being inaccurate.