Beijing spends 120 billion yuan to improve air quality

(BEIJING, March 12) -- In the past ten years, Beijing has spent 120 billion yuan (about 17 billion U.S. dollars) to improve air quality, Vice Minister Zhang Lijun of the State Environmental Protection Administration told the Beijing Daily.

Following 13 improvement phases and through more than 200 projects, the number of days with fairly good air quality soared to 246 in 2007 in the nation's capital, or 67.4 percent of the total days, from just 100 days in 1998, he said.

When bidding for the right to hold the Olympic Games, Beijing pledged in 2001 to do three things: first, to monitor the daily content of sulfur dioxide, monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and inhalable particles in the air; second, to make efforts to fully upgrade the environmental quality of the city; and third, to bring the indices of the four pollutants to within national standards and World Health Organization guidelines. Most of the goals have been met, with only inhalable particles requiring further reduction to meet the targeted level.

The authorities pinned hopes on the planned joint efforts of Beijing and its five neighboring municipalities and provinces to control pollution. Measures will include readjustment of industrial structures and less coal-burning and desulfurization and denitration processes in power plants, makers of building materials, cement, chemical and steel and iron products two months ahead of the Olympics.

During the Olympics, Beijing, Tianjin and part of Hebei Province will shut down some plants or limit production, while Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong Province will also limit coal pollution according to the air quality in Beijing.

Experts believe that with all these measures that are already approved by the State Council in place, the air quality in Beijing will be guaranteed and Beijing's Olympic bid pledge can be honored.