Air pollution in China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, has reached intolerable levels and the country should aggressively cut its reliance on coal, according to the government’s climate-change adviser.

“China’s pollution is at an unbearable stage,” Li Junfeng, director general of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said at a conference in Beijing yesterday. “It’s like a smoker who needs to quit smoking at once otherwise he will risk getting lung cancer.”

Chinese authorities have pledged to shut polluting factories and limit the number of cars in response to growing public concern that dirty air and water are damaging people’s health. China, which now uses coal for about 65 percent of its energy, should cut that ratio by two percentage points a year, according to Li.

The comments came as the concentration of PM2.5, fine particulates that pose the greatest risk to human health, rose to at least nine times higher in Beijing than levels recommended by the World Health Organization. PM2.5 levels near Tiananmen Square today were 239 micrograms per cubic meter at 11 a.m. and had averaged 228 in the past 24 hours, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said on its website. The WHO recommends 24-hour exposure of no higher than 25.

In response, China’s environmental protection regulator said yesterday it had sent inspection teams to determine if local authorities in Beijing and surrounding areas had taken adequate measures to against air pollution.

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