The local development and reform commissions of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province recently formulated a regional action plan on energy collaboration.

The plan aims to specify and implement energy goals and tasks for the next three years. It proposes eight collaborative energy development categories including strategy, facilities, administration, green development, operation, innovation, market and policy. In addition, the plan proposes a mechanism to support its implementation.

In the aspect of strengthening facility collaboration, the plan proposes to increase the heating supply from Sanhe Thermo Power Plant to Tongzhou District, facilitate the green heating supply in Yanqing District, and start the heating supply from Zhuozhou Thermo Power Plant to Zhuozhou in Hebei and Fangshan District in Beijing. It also proposes to build a low-carbon Olympic Area in Chongli and establish a pilot area of renewable energy in Zhangjiakou in the aspect of strengthening green energy development. Furthermore, the plan suggests to establish an energy structure adjustment fund, and to improve the local fiscal and taxation policy regarding policy collaboration.

With regards to the supporting mechanism, the plan proposes to set up an energy collaborative mechanism. With the aim of strengthening guidance and coordination, a joint conference should be organized by the local energy departments in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province. A communication mechanism should be established between the local authorities.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is an important energy consumption center in China. In recent years, the local authorities have found consensus in their coordinated development and are now exploring the ways and promoting the joint efforts in the areas of electricity and heating supply.

China’s environment ministry on Monday advised local authorities to lift their orange alert for air pollution as air quality had improved thanks to emergency measures.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) previously forecast that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and nearby areas would see severe air pollution from Nov. 4 to 8, prompting local governments to issue the orange alert, the second highest level, last week.

But as authorities adopted a raft of emergency measures to meet the smog challenge, most of the areas experienced slight air pollution or even good air Monday.

The MEP said authorities should decide the timing on lifting the orange alert based on local air conditions and weather forecasts.

The orange alert brings several measures, including restricting the use of vehicles, increasing pollution controls at construction sites, and temporarily restricting or stopping production activities of steel, cement and coal firms.

The emergency efforts reduced around 20 percent of pollutants, effectively curbing the increasing PM 2.5 density and making the air quality better than forecast, according to Chai Fahe, an expert with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

Air quality usually worsens in late autumn and winter in northern China due to increased emissions from heating sources and less wind.

Shanghai transport commission Monday announced that the city had taken 500,000 bikes off the road since Aug. 18 when it banned bike-sharing companies from releasing more bikes.

Officials say bike-sharing companies are only concerned about grabbing market share but pay little attention to bike management, adding that the surge of shared bikes has seriously disturbed traffic order and cast the city in a bad light.

The commission says it has conducted many inspections since August to ensure the ban is enforced, and rules to regulate the market and punishments, which range from fines to losses of corporate credit, will soon be drafted.

In September, a similar ban was issued in Wuhan, capital city of central China’s Hubei Province, after the number of shared bikes in the urban area ballooned to 700,000, almost twice the area capacity.

Beijing, whose streets have 2.35 million for-hire bikes from 15 companies, also laid down regulations in September to restrict the growth of shared bikes.

China’s bike sharing sector shot up from nowhere to a red-hot frenzy in less than three years. Two market leaders — ofo and Mobike — are both worth more than 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The market is expected to rake in 10.3 billion yuan in revenue this year, a 736 percent increase from 1.2 billion yuan in 2016, according to a report from iMedia Research. It estimated the number of shared-bike users in China will hit 209 million this year, compared with 28 million last year.

Beijing’s four state-owned companies together established a company on Sunday to tackle the city’s car parking problems.

The new firm, Beijing static traffic investment and operation company, aims to increase the city’s parking sites by better using existing resources and building new facilities, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Beijing.

“The company will upgrade and rebuild roadside parking, encourage every district to establish its own company to manage parking lots, and set up a database for authorities to see real-time parking information,” said Qin Daoxin, chairman of the company.

Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport reported that the city was in need of another 1.3 million parking spaces for passenger cars by the end of 2016.

Beijing is troubled by lack of parking spaces, illegal and haphazard parking or unauthorized parking charges.

The four state-owned firms, which include Beijing Capital Highway Development Group Co., Ltd. and Beijing Capital Development Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., can provide support such as financing, technology and management to the new firm.

Three people are missing after a fishing boat capsized on Sunday night in waters off Dalian in northeast China, local authorities said Monday.

The Dalian maritime search and rescue center received reports at around 10 p.m. on Sunday, saying that a fishing boat had capsized.

Ten people fell into the water and seven were picked up by passing boats. Three are still missing, the center said.

The search and rescue center has dispatched rescue ships and helicopters to the scene and asked nearby ships to join the search.