Beijing's 'Green Olympics' test run
fizzles By Edward Russell
BEIJING - August 7 dawned a typical, hazy
Beijing morning. The last headlights of night were
reflecting off the light-grayish gloom that held
the city, obscuring buildings and short-shifting
the horizon to 100 meters at best. One year out
and Beijing's promise of a "green Olympics" is
looking hazy at best.
Last month, the
official state news agency Xinhua announced a plan
by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the
Olympic Games (BOCOG) to remove "about 1 million
vehicles between August 7
and
20". Both the US Embassy and the Beijing
Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) confirmed
plans for a temporary car ban this month as a
"test-run" for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
On Tuesday, the day the ban was supposed
to be implemented, representatives of the BEPB
confirmed that it did not go into effect as
planned. They refused to provide any explanation.
Not surprisingly, the majority of morning
commuters on Tuesday had no idea that a car ban
was even supposed to go into effect. Of eight
commuters, two taxi drivers and a station manager
interviewed, none witnessed any noticeable
decrease in traffic on the roads or an increase in
the number of people on the train or bus.
Tian Hui, a human-resources associate
working in Beijing's Central Business District,
said he felt that "yes, a car ban should help
reduce pollution a little, but I think traffic
will be worse because there are fewer cars to
carry people. More subways and fewer cars and
buses on the surface will help reduce pollution
more."
The proposed car ban was intended
to be a trial run for the two-week Olympics period
next year when China plans to implement strict
controls to ease traffic and improve pollution in
the capital.
The World Health Organization
has cited Beijing for having the highest average
concentration of airborne nitrogen dioxide in Asia
from 2000-05. High concentrations of particulate
matter (PM) smaller than 2.5 millimeters continue
to be a problem in Beijing.
This year, the
capital has suffered from a high number of days
with poor air quality, recording 15 days with a
Grade III or above on China's air-quality index in
June alone. A Grade II or below of air-pollutant
concentrations is considered a normal or "blue
sky" day. In January, Beijing announced an
ambitious plan for 245 blue-sky days in 2007,
improving on 2006's 241 blue-sky days.
Spending on environmental improvements in
Beijing has reached an estimated US$13 billion,
but the city recorded only 110 blue-sky days in
the first six months of 2007, less than half its
goal. The norm this summer seems to be the
reflective, grayish gloom so common in Beijing
instead of the government's promised "blue skies".
Vehicle emissions, along with construction
dust and industrial pollutants, all impact
Beijing's air quality. The number of registered
automobiles in Beijing swelled to 3 million in
2006 and is projected to reach 3.3 million by next
August, the month the Olympics begin.
Yu
Chunquan, BOCOG transportation department
director, said, "There will be limited or modified
road access during the Olympic Games. As is the
custom, special routes for Olympics use only will
be put in place, which non-Olympics-related
vehicles will be restricted from accessing." Yu
failed to mention anything about the proposed car
ban or other measures to counter the growth in
vehicle ownership and emissions.
Christopher Green, second secretary of
environment, science, technology and health at the
US Embassy in Beijing, shared his thoughts on
Beijing's pursuit of a "green" Olympics: "Based on
what Beijing has been doing, I will have to say
yes, they will meet air-quality goals during the
Olympics. A lot of people are measuring the
performance of this [the car ban] test and the
actual Olympics as examples for the rest of China.
"Yes, a significant part of Beijing's
pollution comes from outside the city," Green
responded to how much of Beijing's ambient
pollution is within the city's control. "Even with
everything shut down in Beijing there would still
be high levels of certain pollutants blown in by
the wind. Beijing has gotten rid of most
coal-burning boilers within the city and replaced
them with natural gas; still, sandstorms blow in
from the northern deserts of China and Mongolia.
Nearby Shangxi province is China's main coal
source and most of the country's heavy industry is
to the south. Basically, the pollution gets
trapped over Beijing."
As part of the move
to clean up Beijing's air, the BEPB has replaced
8,000 buses and phased out 50,000 taxis; the buses
and taxis are being replaced with vehicles that
meet the stringent Euro III emission standards.
Other successes in and around Beijing include the
planting of 28 million trees and the installation
of a wind farm in neighboring Hebei province.
At a press conference on Monday, BOCOG
cited successes in transportation and the
environment by referring to its "cheap-bus-ticket
policy" and gradual improvements in "air and water
quality".
BOCOG is taking its drive to
clean up Beijing seriously. Its prominent campaign
to teach Beijingers "good manners" employs men and
women, adorned with bright red caps and armed with
triangular flags, to shepherd riders into queues
and flag buses down in an exacting, almost
scientific fashion out of place in China.
Despite the scientific manner Beijingers
now sporadically use to ride the bus, traffic was
as bad as ever on Tuesday evening. With no car ban
in effect and an afternoon rainstorm, one bus
rider, Jao Qian, prophetically summed up the
impact of the capital's car ban: "I think maybe
the car ban will be invisible because most people
who have a car oppose the idea."
As
always, buses crawled during the evening rush and
night descended on to Beijing's ever persistent
haze. With the Games due to begin on August 8,
2008, Beijing has at this writing 364 more days to
hope for sun.
Edward Russell is
a Beijing-based freelance journalist.
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