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Beijing Vows Drastic Air Quality Standards by 2017
Beijing’s environmental protection office says it intends to impose the world’s toughest air quality standards—including measures to phase in reductions of as much as 50% for allowable vehicle emissions—within two years.
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Beijing’s environmental protection office says it intends to impose the world’s toughest air quality standards—including measures to phase in reductions of as much as 50% for allowable vehicle emissions—within two years.
The new regulations, which the agency didn’t describe in detail, would require that at least half of new vehicles sold in the city by 2020 meet the lower standards, Automotive News China reports. The government has not indicated what sanctions it would impose on carmakers that fail to meet the limits.
The office estimates Beijing’s current vehicle population exceeds 5.5 million units and is expanding by 600,000 units per year. The agency estimates vehicles account for about one-third of Beijing’s “PM2.5” airborne particulates.
To improve air quality, the agency has closed three of Beijing’s four coal-fired power plants and relocated several industrial factories. But ANC reports that concentrations of PM 2.5 particles averaged 86 micrograms per cubic meter last year, nearly six times the 15-microgram level considered safe by the World Health Organization.
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