Another Look at Beijing’s High Polluting Vehicle Phase-out Plan
Air quality of Beijing was a major focal point before and during the Olympic Games. After the Olympics, the issue became less visible even as Beijing continued its quest for blue sky days. According to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB), from January 1, 2009 to June 9, 2009, the number of days that the air quality met Grade 2 standards or better accounted for 81% of the days. As a matter of fact, the Beijing residents are enjoying the best air quality for the same period of time since 2000, partly thanks to its high polluting vehicle phase-out plan (the “yellow-label” policy).
The Ministry of Environment Protection has categorized air quality into five grades. Grade 1 is the best with an Air Pollutant Index (API) less than 50, and Grade 2 is considered “good” with the index ranging from 51 to 100. High-polluting vehicles are a major source of air pollutants in Beijing. By the end of 2008, there are about 353,800 yellow mark cars that account for only 10% of the total cars in Beijing but emit half of the total pollutants by the vehicles in Beijing.
In addition to the yellow label vehicle phase-out incentives, Beijing has provided up to two-year discount car loan to public service driving contractors who purchase green label cars in 2009, based on the purchase date.
The car purchase date and loan qualifications are specified as follows:
- Car purchased January 1 to June 30, 2009: 2-year discount car loan
- Car purchased July 1 to Sept 30, 2009, 1.5-year discount car loan
- Car purchased Oct 1 to Dec 31, 2009: 1-year discount car loan
The Beijing Transportation Bureau even gives an example on how a car owner could best benefit from the campaign. If a driving contractor purchased a heavy truck worth 300,000 yuan ($43,920) in 2004 and trades in it by June 30, 2009, he would receive 15,000 yuan ($2,196). He would save an additional 36,000 yuan ($5,270) from a car loan if he purchases a green label car of a similar model. The total savings would total 51,000 yuan ($7,460), over one sixth of the car value.
Still, the incentive seems unattractive to most owners. It was estimated that to date, Beijing has only disbursed incentives to 31,871 yellow label vehicle owners, just 10% of the total owner base. But most of the yellow label cars have disappeared, but it’s the “forbidden zone” that makes the difference. Most owners chose to sell their yellow label cars to 2nd hand car dealerships who then sold the cars to the neighboring cities that have less stringent emission regulations. That is, most high polluting cars are not traded in, but spread around the city.
In addition to the stringent regulation, Beijing keeps adding cleaner buses to its public transportation system and is currenlty the city that owns the most natural gas buses in the world— 4,000. This number will increase to 5,000 by 2012. Beijing has also moved most high polluting industries out of the area and increased its forest coverage to 36.5%.
Beijing also has a rule that forces a car off the street for one day per week during weekdays. For example, if a car’s license plate number ends in 1 or 6, that vehicle is forbidden from driving on Monday; this keeps 20% of the cars in Beijing at home on any one weekday. But some would argue that many rich people simply buy a second car to circumvent the policy and avoid the inconvenience of the license plate-governed driving ban.
A couple of days ago, the Beijing Transportation Commission announced a green public transportation initiative for 2009-2015. Some highlights are as follows:
- By 2015, Beijing’s daily public transportation (buses and subways) capacity will accommodate 25 million passenger-trips, including 15 million by buses and 10 million by subway.
- 45 percent of passenger-trips in the Beijing metro area will be by public transportation.
- The city will establish around 1,000 bicycle rental stations with a total of 50,000 bicycles available for rent. More pedestrian-only and bicycle-only lanes will be opened across the metro area.
- Lanes dedicated to public transportation use will reach 450 km in Beijing.
- 90% of the passengers in the metro area will have to walk less than 500 meters to reach a public transportation stop.
Although the API readings lately show better air quality in Beijing, it should be noted that the API currently only measures the concentration of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM10. It was reported that China is considering including PM2.5 readings in its API measurements. PM2.5 is particulate matter that is smaller and thus more damaging to the respiratory system than PM10.
Meanwhile, my colleague Alex Wang and his environmental law project team just released a milestone project. The PITI—Pollution Information Transparency Index—monitors how 113 Chinese cities perform in terms of disclosure of pollution information and is the first major effort at establishing a comprehensive Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) in China.
The author, Kevin Mo, is the director of NRDC’s China Sustainable Building program.
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