The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Date: 10:30 a.m., Thursday, July 10
Venue: Main Press Center (MPC)
Sun Weide
Dear friends, good morning.
Today, we are delighted to have this press conference on Beijing's preparation for energy saving and emission reduction in the build up for the Olympic Games.
We are delighted to have Mr. Wang Haiping, vice director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform; Bi Xiaogang, vice director of Beijing Water Authority; Du Shaozhong, vice director and spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau; Qiang Jian, vice director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry; Zhang Yanyou, a Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission official present at the press conference.
The press conference will last for 45 minutes. First of all, I would like to give to Mr. Wang Haiping.
Wang Haiping
Dear friends, good morning. I am delighted to have this opportunity to give this introduction on our efforts to practice the philosophy on 'Green Olympics' by saving energy and reducing emissions. 'Green Olympics' is one of the three leading philosophies of Beijing Olympic Games.
Since our successful bidding for the Olympic Games, we have practiced this philosophy by speeding up the industry restructuring, introducing cutting edge technologies, promoting key projects and introducing mechanism updating so as to promote energy saving, environmental protection and ecological rehabilitation. Thanks to all these efforts we have ensured quality and quantity economic and social development.
We have made the following efforts. First of all, we have stepped up the industrial upgrading for energy saving and environment friendly infrastructure.
As is known, economic growth is a major consumer of resource and is a common pursuit to speed up economic growth at a lower cost of the resources.
Since 2001, in compliance with the philosophy of 'Green Olympics', we have introduced a series of measures and initiatives to upgrade our industrial structures and improve the efficiency of resources so as to alleviate the pressure on environmental resources.
We have made a two-fold effort in this regard. On one hand, we have promoted the development of modern industries featuring low consumption, low pollution and technical content as well as high-value added such as financial service, software and information technology electronics and auto making industries.
And on the other hand, we have also promoted the relocation or suspension of operation of other industries, featuring high consumption, high emission as well as heavy pollution. For example, we have relocated the Shougang Group and suspended operation of Beijing Coking Factory and Beijing organic chemical plants. We have also totally faded out seven heavy-polluting industries, including small scale paper making and dyeing and small scale casting industry.
We have reshaped the local industry needs. For example, the service industry now accounts for 72.1% of the Municipal GDP, a great improvement compared to 2001. And the value-added of financial industry, data transfer industry, computer service and software industry, scientific service industry and commercial industry respectively accounts for 13.8 %, 9.2 %, 5.8 %, and 5.9 % of the municipal GDP.
The industry restructuring has helped to lay out a solid foundation to protect the environment and host the green Olympic Games. According to our preliminary statistics, in 2007, the energy consumption per 10,000 RMB of GDP stood at 0.714 ton of standard coal down by 37.4% of 1.14 ton in 2001, and water consumption for 10,000 RMB of GDP also decreased from 104.9 cubic meters in 2001 to 37.2 cubic meters in 2007, down by 64.5 %.
And secondly, we have carried out an inclusive campaign to reduce consumption and enhance efficiency. To host a green Olympic Games, the municipality has introduced a various laws and regulations as well as guidelines so as to intensify supervision and promotes model roles. We have made great efforts to transform the production model and consumption model to a more environment friendly pattern.
We have made the following efforts in this regard. First of all, we have introduced the guidelines to coordinate economic and social progress with the environment protection to ensure the economic development, better livelihood and in the sound eco-system. The municipality has introduced the 11th Five-Year Plan where it has been defined as the key target to reduce energy and water intensity by 20 percent in comparison to the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan. Meanwhile, we have introduced a host of programs to protect the environment, save energy and promote circular economy. With all these programs in place, we have a definite set of goals to achieve.
And No. 2, we have introduced a comprehensive quality framework to support our efforts. In compliance with the target of energy saving and emission reduction, the municipality has introduced various measures and initiatives, such as the opinion to implement the resolution by the State Council on energy saving, the rules on implementing the provisional measures of clean production, the decision on developing circular economy, building a resource saving city and the rules for energy saving supervision and so on. Since 2005, we have implemented the program for promoting circular economy and energy saving and environmental friendly city for 4 consecutive years in a row. Altogether, we have introduced other the measures to control the air pollution. With all these efforts, we have set up a solid policy foundation for energy saving and emission reduction.
Furthermore, we have carried out a host of projects, for example, in the urban area, we have managed to reconfigure the coal mine boiler. Altogether, we have re-engineered 16,000 boilers with a capacity below 20 tons of steam. We have also replaced the heating sources for 32,000 household in urban area with electricity. And we plan to have another 50,000 household by the end of this year. Efforts have also been made to desulfurize the operation of Guohua, Huaneng and Gaojing power plants.
We have also continuously improved the standard for the emission of vehicles. Altogether, we have outdated more than 50 thousand taxies and buses. We have put into operation 4 thousand LNG powered buses. Efforts also made to improve the energy structure.
We have built up the Taiyanggong and Zhengchangzhuang gas burning power plant, Caoqiao gas burning heating center. And we have now 53 large and medium sized biomass facilities in operation and 61 biogas facilities. The first state of Guanting is now in service with a capacity of 50,000-KW solar energy, and total capacity of solar energy, which is one megawatt. The solar energy collector space is up to 3.8 million square meters and an area heated by heat pump is up to ten million square meters.
In 2007, electricity and natural gas accounted for 60% of the energy supply, and proportion of renewable energy accounted for 2%. The government earmarked 30 million RMB to install two million compact fluorescent bulbs for all the primary and middle schools, nursing houses, and welfare facilities across the whole city. By July 30, we will replace another 5 million bulbs. Meanwhile, we plan to start the re-engineering projects for 30 hotels and restaurants as well as 10 hospitals for energy saving.
We have also innovated the mechanism to intensify enforcements. In 2007, we signed an accountability agreement, with the leadership of districts and county government as well as 50 major consumers so that the performance evaluation of the leadership will be associated with the achievement of the energy saving and emission reduction. On April 1, 2007 we enacted the provisional method of evaluating and reviewing fixed assets investment.
As of June 30, 2008, we have filed 247 projects for review and approval in the regard of energy saving. We have also introduced method on using the fund for clean production and support measures. We have employed 17 consultant agencies to investigate and inspect 104 enterprises. Altogether 60 enterprises have passed our inspection by the end of June, 2008. 25 of them have received 37 million RMB of government fiscal support.
Additionally, we have introduced a subsidy mechanism for disposal of e-waste so as to provide support for the operation for the enterprises responsible for disposal. In 2007, the subsidy amounted to 12 million RMB. We now can carry out online supervision of energy consumption of the industry enterprises with a consumption above 20,000 tons of standard coal. We also carried out online supervision of electricity and heat consumption of the municipal government. On June 10, 2007, the energy saving supervision escort was inaugurated with 22 enforcement staff on duty.
We have also intensified the recycling of resources for greater efficiency. We have established the Asuwei waste treatment facility, Gao'antun waste burning power plants and Deqingyuan biogas power plant as well as other treatment facilities. In 2007, the treatment ratio was up to 99.87% in the urban area for household waste and 76.48% in the rural area. Meanwhile, we have 10 water recycling facilities in operation. In 2007, we, in total, used 48 million cubic meters of recycled water and 460,000 mu of farm land was irrigated with recycled water.
Furthermore, we have put in place various campaign to advocate energy saving and emission reduction. For example, across the city, we have carried out various public service campaigns, including the model role of water saving household, energy and water saving courses and drive-less campaign. We have carried workshops for the leaderships and executives of the leading institutions across Beijing and with the combination of exhibitions, media campaign and theme programs, we have enhanced the public awareness of energy saving and emission reduction.
Thanks to all these efforts, we now enjoy much better air quality. In 2007, Beijing recorded 246 days with air quality at or above level 2, and 61 days more than that in 2008.
Next, I'm going to give an introduction on our efforts to keep wastewater and improve the water quality. Within the 6 ring roads of Beijing, we have 52 rivers with a total stretch of 520 kilometers. Since our successful bidding for the Olympic Games, we have adapted a public minded and a nature oriented approach to intensify the treatment of wastewater and we rehabilitated ecological balance in this water body. With our delivery of Olympic commitment, we have also successfully improved the leading standards.
Since 2000, all together 9 wastewater treatment facilities have been up and running including Gaobeidian, Qinghe, Lugouqiao and Xiaohongmen. And we have 5 under construction. The treatment volume has increased from 320 million cubic meters in 2001 to 800 million cubic meters in 2007 and the treatment ratio is up from 38% to 92%.
Meanwhile, we have established 31 medium-sized treatment plants in the suburb areas and 487 small scale facilities at the villages and township level. All these represent a total capacity of 140 million cubic meters.
And we have also made great efforts to restore the ecological balance in more than 40 plant waterways within Beijing, including Liangshuihe, Qinghe, Beihuchenghe and Qingyanghe. By following the natural pattern of the water body, we have introduced various aquatic vegetations in the light to restore the ecological balance. All the efforts have been near rewarding.
And every year we made great effort to replenish fresh water, rain water and recycle water into the main water body within the urban main area. Along Qinghe, Chaobaihe, Beiyunhe, Shangzhuang Reservoir, Beihai and Tongzihe, we have established the 10 major circular projects so as to circulate the water within this water body to improve the water quality. After this we have preliminarily finished the treatment of the water quality within the 6 ring roads so as to have a pleasing environment.
And forestation is also a component of green Olympics. In recent years, we have carried out great efforts to ensure that our citizens can enjoy green view for every 500 meters around the city. We have established the 12,600 hectares of green separating areas, 15 parks so as to increase the coverage of forest. In the clean areas, we have put in place 15 green corridors along the 5 rivers and 10 roads with the width of 30 meters to 200 meters. In the mountainous areas, we have made great efforts to treat the sources of sandstorm. We have rehabilitated the ecological system of the abandoned mines and preserved the natural environment.
Meanwhile, we have carried out an inclusive campaign for forestation. On March 12 every year, many citizens plant trees on voluntary basis. We have trained 46,000 farmers to be foresters responsible for the maintenance of the forestry. Beijing citizens are very active in forestation campaign. By the end of 2007, we have all together 10 green areas and landscape townships, 46 landscape townships, 4,951 landscape parts and communities. All together we have 3 state level demonstration towns and 2 state level demonstration townships.
In 2007, the forest coverage in Beijing reached 51.6% and 70.49% in the rural areas along the 5 rivers and 10 roads we have 25,000 hectares of green belts and in the urban area the vegetation expanded by 12,600 hectares. With this three green ecological belts on the 'urban green separating areas, plains and mountainous areas', the vegetation coverage reached 43% in the city proper. Natural preserved areas account for 8.18% of the municipal territory.
So that's the general situation about our progress in practicing the 'Green Olympic' philosophy.
Sun Weide
Thank you, Mr. Wang for the introduction. Now the floor is open, please identify yourself and your agency.
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