Shandong to cut pollution for WW II celebration

Authorities in East China's Shandong Province have ordered a halt to construction work at over 2,800 sites from August 28 to September 4 to improve the air quality for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing. Factories in the province remitting excessive emissions will also be told to suspend operations as authorities vow to cut air pollution by 30 percent, local news site dzwww.com reported. More than 3,100 coal-burning facilities will be shut down before August 25, it added. Beijing and Hebei Province have ordered emissions-heavy facilities to halt operations during the commemoration period, media reported. Meanwhile, China has shut down more than 9,000 factories in the first half of the year, the Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday, citing data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). The MEP said it had ordered over 15,000 factories to cut emissions, with fines reaching 230 million yuan ($37 million). Fifty-seven officials have been punished in 10 severely polluted cities mainly from Hebei and Shandong provinces. Shandong enforced an odd-even license plate control system to reduce the number of vehicles on the road during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November 2014.