Environmental authorities in China said on Friday that Beijing and its surrounding industrial province of Hebei cut smog emissions by at least 12 percent in 2018 after a long crackdown on polluters as well as campaigns to reduce household coal use. Beijing’s local government said that the city’s emissions of small, hazardous breathable particles known as PM2.5 fell 12 percent to 51 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg) over the whole of 2018. The government said that average emissions are still significantly higher than China’s official air quality standard of 35 micrograms. It added that 656 polluting enterprises were forced to relocate last year, with firms and individuals fined a total of 230 million yuan ($33.50 million) for violations, up 22.5 percent from last year. Hebei, China’s biggest steel-producing region, saw PM2.5 emissions fall by 12.5 percent to an average of 56mcg in 2018. The cut was partly a result […]