Fine dust is already on the rise…Government revives two-day driving system for public institutions

As a measure to reduce fine dust, the government has decided to re-implement the two-day system for public institutions vehicles, which was temporarily suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

Restrictions on driving old diesel vehicles will be extended to Daejeon, Ulsan, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and Sejong.

This is reporter Seungbae Lee.

[기자]

At this time of year, fine dust is as much of a concern as the cold.

Fine dust and ultrafine dust advisories have already been issued simultaneously in the metropolitan area.

In Incheon, the concentration of ultrafine dust soared to 144㎍ per cubic meter, and in Seoul it was 122㎍, four to five times higher than usual.

There is also a prediction that fine dust attacks will become more frequent this winter than usual due to smog originating from China.

The government has come up with a solution.

First of all, the two-day driver system for public institutions vehicles, which was temporarily suspended during the coronavirus outbreak, will be revived.

However, it is only activated when emergency abatement measures are issued.

[한덕수 / 국무총리 : 행정부와 지자체뿐만 아니라 국회, 선거관리위원회, 헌법재판소와 법원, 감사원 등도 비상저감조치 발령 시 차량 2부제에 적극 동참해 주실 것을 당부드립니다.]

The area where vehicles with Class 5 emissions are restricted will also be expanded.

Previously, it only applied to the metropolitan area, Busan, and Daegu, but it will be expanded to include Daejeon, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Ulsan, and Sejong.

Public institutions decided to raise the heating temperature to 18 degrees and turn off half of the lights in underground parking lots.

For large businesses that emit a lot of fine dust, supervision of illegal emissions will be strengthened, and coal-fired power plants will scale back operations and limit output to 80%.

Within the four major ports, including Busan and Incheon, ships must operate at a speed of 10 to 40 kilometers per hour.

The target for reducing ultrafine dust and generated substances by the end of March next year is 108,000 tons, a 2.3% decrease from last year.

The government expects that the average concentration of ultrafine dust will decrease by 1.4㎍ per cubic meter.

At the same time, the government is increasing the forecast area so that we can prepare in advance before fine dust approaches.

It was decided to expand the 36-hour advance forecast, which is provided a day and a half in advance, from the metropolitan area to the Chungcheong and Honam areas.

To respond to fine dust, we plan to cooperate not only with China but also with international organizations, and in particular, around February next year, we plan to investigate the air quality of the Korean Peninsula and East Asia together with NASA.

This is YTN Lee Seung-bae.

Video editing; Yongjun Yoon
Graphics; Lee Won-hee

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