Beijing has been leading the country in implementing higher environmental standards over the years, a municipal environmental official said.

He said in a recent interview that since 1998, Beijing has adopted 18 local environmental protocols that set higher standards than the state benchmarks.

Wang Kai, director of the General Affairs Office of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (BJEPB), said that the environmental protocols are part of the legal framework for implementing "Green Olympics", one of the key concepts of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The protocols include "Beijing Emission Standards for Water Pollutants (tentative)," and "Standards for Overall Pollutant Discharge from Boilers" and standards of automobile emissions.

Wang said as the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has always been stricter in implementing environmental and pollutant discharge standards than that the state required.

The state standards of pollution control consist of various indexes for measuring water, air, noise and electromagnetic pollutions. The standards stipulate specific benchmarks for pollution levels, including a long list of various wastes and hazardous chemicals.