Aerial photo of Xiongan New Area [Photo/Xinhua] Some hospitals and universities will relocate from downtown Beijing to suburbs and nearby Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province to relieve the city of functions nonessential to its role as China’s capita… read more
There is a growing mood in favour of cleaner air. There is general agreement that the air in city centres like London needs urgent action to clean it up. In the centres of our Thames Valley towns there is also room for improvement. Some are already blaming the diesel car as the main cause and urging higher taxes or bans on diesel vehicles. It is a good idea first to examine what we know about the sources and causes of pollution.
The London Assembly researched the sources of Nox in London in 2015. This showed the following sources
Bus, coach and rail public transport 18%
Goods vehicles 17%
Gas heating systems 16%
Non road mobile machinery 14%
Diesel cars 11%
Petrol cars and motorcycles 8%
Aviation 8%
Industry 7%
The TFL study in 2016 showed a similar pattern, with gas heating and industry as the biggest source, and with both bus and coach and goods vehicles each a bit bigger than diesel cars.
The new Euro VI standards for engines require both petrol and diesel engines to emit less than 5mg per km of particulates. They allow just 80 mg of Nox for diesels compared to 60 mg for petrol, whilst allowing petrol engines to emit more carbon monoxide than diesels (100mg versus 50mg)
In order to clean up the air, especially removing particulates, requires replacement of a lot of older technology buses, trains, cars, and gas boilers. This will also allow the introduction of equipment which is more fuel efficient, also helping to drive down emissions and cut running costs.
Instead of working up a new series of penalties for owners of older diesel cars, government should work on a range of incentives to tackle the problem in a broad based way, removing the oldest buses, lorries, cars and boilers which would do the most to improve the position. it could also give a welcome boost to the home industries that produce these items.
We should not ignore the contribution replacing old heating boilers at home and work can have, with the added bonus of cutting running costs. Lets have better scrappage and financing schemes, so more people can afford to make their contribution to cleaner air, and can at the same time take pride in owning better machines.
read moreThe illegal fundraising schemes involved 4 billion yuan (580 million U.S. dollars). [File Photo] Chinese police in several provinces arrested more than 430 suspects in connection with internet-based pyramid-style schemes. Police in Guangdong, Bei… read more
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People rush to get a train at the Xidan Station in Beijing Subway. [Photo/China.org.cn] |
The number of permanent residents in Beijing’s six main urban districts dropped by about 353,000 last year, according to the municipal bureau of statistics on Thursday.
The reduction is more than the entire population of Iceland.
Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020, reducing the population in six core districts by 15 percent from the 2014 level.
The bureau of statistics found residents’ image of the city had improved.
A survey showed that 72.3 percent of those polled had confidence in Beijing’s becoming a high-class livable city, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous year, and 63.3 percent found the city more livable than last year.
read moreYu Zhengsheng (3rd L), chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, presides over a biweekly consultation session on cultivation of patriotic young and middle-aged person in the religious group in … read more
