Overall the pollution levels in Beijing remain way too high with the very high levels of PM2.5 – not reported by the BEPB who continues to brainwash us with their blue sky days propaganda.
But contrary to many foreign media reports, Beijing (and China) are taking the environmental mess quite seriously and a lot has been achieved. Here some more positive notes.
China planted two trees for every citizen in the past year
New York/Nairobi, 21 September 2009 – The global public’s desire to see action on climate change was clearly spotlighted today with the announcement that the Billion Tree Campaign has reached 7 billion trees – one for every person on the planet.
Over the past three years millions of people ranging from scouts to presidents and from schoolchildren to city dwellers and corporate heads have been rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty for the environment through tree planting.
Today’s milestone was reached with the news that the Government of China has planted 2.6 billion trees as part of this unique campaign, bringing the total to 7.3 billion trees planted in 167 countries worldwide.
Jia Zhibang, Director of the State Forestry Administration, said China aimed to raise its forest coverage rate from 18% to 20% by 2010 and to 26% by 2050. “Planting trees is the best that China can do to contribute to the fight against climate change,” he added.
Advances in Beijing to combat pollution:
– Introduction of new-car emissions standards to the level of Euro IV
– Massive investments are in the pipeline to introduce hybrid cars and electric cars.
– More than 4,100 of the 20,000 city buses run on CNG or LPG, the largest such fleet in the world.
– By 2015, the city aims to be running 18 lines stretching 561 km, while the number of passengers will hit 10 million a day, the authority said.
– The oldest, dirtiest automobiles, called “yellow-label” cars, after the sticker glued to their windshields, are banned from the center city.
– In the past years Beijing has converted 60,000 boilers and commercial heaters to run on natural gas instead of coal.
– The city’s four coal-fired power plants have installed state-of-the-art pollution scrubbers.
– Nearly 2,900 gas stations and petroleum storage tanks have been equipped with recycling controls.
– Hundreds of heavily polluting factories have been moved from central Beijing, including a coking coal plant and the huge steel mill that is scheduled to depart by the end of 2010, the unit of the Shougang Group, China’s fourth largest steelmaker; with its move to neighboring Hebei Province, 65,000 Beijing workers will lose their jobs.
While many look at China, the situation in India is not much better. 45% of its geographical area suffers from some form of land degradation; 3 million deaths per year attributed to air pollution; almost 70% of its surface water is contaminated. India with 17% of the global population accounts for 5.3% of global carbon emissions. The USA (under 5% of world population) accounts for more than 20% of the emissions.