Beijing hints at harsher curbs on private cars to ease air pollution
Beijing officials appear to be building a case for a long-term policy on restricting the use of private cars to alleviate the city’s notorious air pollution.
Beijing officials appear to be building a case for a long-term policy on restricting the use of private cars to alleviate the city’s notorious air pollution.
Environmental officials have said their analysis of air pollution levels during the week of the Apec summit in November showed that limiting the number of vehicles on the road was the most effective way to improve air quality.
The analysis, released yesterday by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said the capital city was able to reduce main air pollutants by almost half during the Apec summit in mid November, which resulted in a relatively low average PM2.5 reading of 43.
Of the total reductions, said the report, vehicle restrictions accounted for some 39.5 per cent, followed by the suspension of construction work and factory production, which contributed 19.9 per cent and 17.5 per cent respectively.
Song Qiang, head of Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, said sensitivity analysis was applied to determine the effectiveness of each measure, The Beijing News reported.
The analysis concluded that vehicle restriction is the most effective method for reducing PM2.5 levels and suggested that one direction the environment bureau could work on is to limit the use of vehicles.
