The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Reporter from Germany Newspaper
Some reports say that some foreign companies have been urged by Chinese authorities to shut down their production by July 20. Are these foreign companies going to be compensated? And second, just in case you have not heard about that, what if these companies may misunderstand that they say they are urged by Chinese authorities to shut down?
Du Shaozhong
On April 14, we sent a message to the public about the provisional measures to reduce emissions during the Olympic Games, including the following components. First, to control the traffic of vehicles; second, to restrain the heavily polluting construction projects; and third, to reduce the emission of the heavy polluters by 30% during the Olympic Games. Altogether, we listed 28 leading polluters on the list for emission reduction. And according to my knowledge, progress has been achieved in this regard. The message also stated that, in case of most adverse climate to disperse the pollution, we may list more companies and corporations to reduce their emissions during the Olympic Games. But generally speaking, progress is quite remarkable in this regard.
As I often introduced at previous press conferences, all these emission reductive measures are applicable to all at an on-going bases. Altogether we have carried out 14 phases of measures to control emission, including more than 200 measures. Most of the measure will be kept even after the Olympic Games. Secondly, we enjoy support and endorsement of the enterprises for the Olympic Games as well as the effort to reduce emission. Thirdly, these measures are accompanied with technical upgrading and reengineering. Therefore, for the long term's view, these efforts are beneficial to the operation of these enterprises.
Reporter from Germany Newspaper
What about the compensation?
Du Shaozhong
They are not compelled to carry out the emission reduction. We have introduced economic incentives to promote emission reduction. For example, we subsidize the replacement of coal burning boilers as well as the replacement of heating source with the electricity of the local households. We also subsidize the outdating of energy intensive vehicles and yellow label vehicles of the public service utilities. Most of all, we aim to replace the subsidy with economic incentives so as to promote energy efficiency.
For example, with regard to the effort to control vehicle traffic, we introduced incentive for the complied drivers, who will be exempted from three months of road maintenance fee and various surcharges.
Beijing Youth Daily
I'm from the Beijing Youth Daily. In your presentation, you talked about the enforcement escort, which has followed up 76 leading cases. Can you give us more details on the specific solve of these cases?
Wang Haiping
So with this special task force on duty the enforcement of energy saving has been enhanced. Altogether they have investigated 704 cases, 76 of which have been settled. Due to time limit, I am going to give you a detailed list after this press conference.
Zhang Yanyou
I want to clarify, actually the special task is for energy saving only, and within the bureau of environmental protection, there is another task force responsible for pollution control last year, the energy saving task force was responsible for inspecting energy consumption for shopping centers, hotels, and super markets according to the direct of the state counsel so as to ensure that the temperature of the air conditioning system is below the stipulated level. And the escort is also responsible for monitoring operation of major energy consumers.
Reuters
I am with Reuters. I think it is fair to say that the pollution of the last couple of weeks with the exception of a couple of days has been about a thousand gaps in Beijing.
I was just wondering the fact that you are not talking about compensations for heavy polluters for shutting down after, or reducing emissions after July 20. Is it possible they are already over producing at the moment to make up for loss of production they are going to have during the Games? Are we suffering now for cleaning skies as well as in September?
Du Shaozhong
Just as I mentioned, the measure to control emission of enterprise and vehicles will be carried out an on-going bases. On July 1, we adopted a policy to restrain the operation of yellow level vehicles within the urban areas and some of the cars owned by the government are also moved out of operation. I believe all these measures will be carried out on an on-going basis. During the past few days, the air quality is actually better than previous period, partly due to the climate change, and partly due to our efforts to reduce emission.
Foreign reporter
Just a follow-up of the air quality, air pollution. We know that Beijing made a lot of efforts in this regard but the problem is the pollution is also coming from the provinces around. So, is there any effort made by the provinces to control the pollution?
Du Shaozhong
As is known, air quality is fragile to the regional elements. And this is the two ways interactive process. All our measures have been formulated to address the main pollutants within the atmosphere. Therefore in addition to local efforts, we also expect the surrounding provinces to take initiatives. To my knowledge, the surrounding provinces have formulated and implement the relevant measures since the beginning of this year.
Bloomberg News
Thank you, I'm from Bloomberg News. My question is about water resources. I know that Beijing is adding new green space right now faster than ever before while at the same time digging deeper into the ground to get water it needs for project.
I just want to ask the officials, do you think it's really worth it at a time when the natural resources are so stressed to be trying to present an image of greenness which is actually placing further stress on the natural resources?
Bi Xiaogang
With regard to water resources, we know that Beijing used to rely on surface water and ground water for water supply. But now the recycled water is playing an increasingly important role. In recent years, we do have carried out a lot of greening projects, but we have also introduced water saving technologies from the international community, and meanwhile, have diversified the resources of water supply. Recycled water is now a leading source of water supply for greening effort. With all these efforts, we can ensure water efficiency and alleviate the pressure on water resources.
Wall Street Journal
Hi, I'm from Wall Street Journal, I know that officials say that the number of green days are suddenly improving so we put all the data from the official websites into an excel sheet and we print a structure and we notice something very interesting that in the pollution index 0-500, there are numbers scattered all over the place reading as high as to 300 and as low as 30 or less. But at the 100 level there is a strange disappearance, there are plenty of numbers just underneath 100 but just above 100 there's a big blank and we solve that for months but we looked it over a year.
Now I know some analysts claimed that what happened is that people are falsifying the data, and the number for example reached an API of 105 they will trick it down to 99. Looking at the chart, there is a big wide ban just above 100 level. Can you explain to me why there is a very very obvious blank space at the 100 level; it looks as if the number has been massaged so that more data comes just below the blue sky level and just above. Can you please explain it for me? Thank you.
Du Shaozhong
Thank you for the interesting data. Actually all these data have been collected from separated observation centers which can cover on individual basis 9 square kilometers, therefore some convenience maybe taken in very adverse situations to improve the air quality within 9 square kilometers so that the API can remain at or below 100. In this regard, our plan to enhance enforcement and improve the accuracy with more data centers to be established. This will be a blessing for our building control efforts.
CCTV
I'm from the CCTV, my question is about the temperature of the air conditioning system. We are interested in the temperature set for the air conditioning system at the MPC and other affiliated venues. If we increased the temperature by one centigrade degree, how much energy can we save?
Zhang Yanyou
So according to our state council directive, all the public facilities, with the exception of hospital the temperature should be kept above 26 centigrade degree in summer and below 20 in winter. For the sake of comfort and performance of athletes, we do not have compulsory standard for our Olympic venues, but we will try our best to comply with this directive.
Wang Haiping
So in compliance with the green Olympic philosophy, the city council has stipulated the law of 26centigrade degree. And this has been warmly embraced by local citizens and institutions so as to alleviate the pressure on the resources and local power grade. However, with regard to the contracted hotels and affiliated facilities, we need to take into consideration the habit and demands of our guests so that the 26 centigrade degree law does not apply yet.
In all these facilities, we choose to follow the international practice and guideline of IOC, so as to boost the athletes' performance and ensure your comfortable stay in Beijing.
Sun Weide
Thank you for your time. Tomorrow morning at 11 am, we are going to have a press conference on the innovation in Olympic venues. We are going to have special guests from scientific and technological commission of Beijing as well as the construction commission of the Olympic Games. Thank you.
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