How cities around the world are tackling dangerous air quality

As wildfires wreak havoc on air quality in Canada and the U.S., the response of cities across the world to emergency levels of air pollution may provide some insight to solutions.

Last week, large swaths of North America were choking under wildfire smoke.

Cities in both the U.S. and Canada saw a haze descend on them, spurring warnings to stay indoors and to mask up for those who had to be outdoors. And as wildfires are expected to keep wreaking havoc on air quality, the response of cities across the world to emergency levels of air pollution may offer some solutions.

Canada is not the first country to face weeks of poor air quality, and in many parts of the world residents in cities like Beijing, China; New Delhi, India; Bogota, Colombia; and Paris, France have had to innovate and adapt.

Here’s how they do it.

In November 2014, Beijing played host to the 21st Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. The city, notorious for some of the world’s worst air quality, had to clean up its air before the summit began.

In a very short span of time, the Chinese authorities put into place emergency measures to improve air quality ahead of the summit.

Production in factories around the capital city was either stopped or halted, along with slowing down construction work. Vehicular traffic was heavily curtailed, with traffic rules put in place alternating which vehicles could drive on which days.

The rule, when in place, means only vehicles with odd-numbered licence plates are allowed to drive on one day and only even-numbered ones the day after — a move introduced in 2008 to help ease congestion and reduce pollution during the Olympics and Paralympics, according to Reuters.