Beijing experts confident of air quality during Olympics

(BEIJING, February 27) -- Chinese environmental protection experts have raised hopes for the weather and environmental conditions, which have been widely debated regarding severe pollution and possible threats to athletes' health during the Olympics.

Their hopes were based on the city's last move to ensure fine weather conditions, as the emissions standard has been set to reach European IV, a benchmark that has been widely adopted around the world.

"It is a milestone in the city's effort to ensure clean air conditions during the Olympic Games," Wang Jiangxi, a professor in Tsinghua Univeristy's Department of Automobile Engineering, said.

Under the Euro IV standard, the emissions would be reduced by half compared with the Euro III standard, he said.

"Once cars start using fuel that reaches the IV standard, emissions will be cut by 20 percent."

The fuel manufacturing companies begun supplying fuel that meets the Euro IV standard to the city's buses in April last year, and they finished preparing for the whole market in October.

The World Health Organization (WHO) advised in 2006 that the Inhalable Particles per square meter is 150 gammas, which is the same as the limit set by China.

Wang Dawei, head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Atmosphere Department, said: "After detailed planning, we set our goal to control the Inhalable Particles during the Olympic Games to under the 150 gammas.

"The Beijing municipal government is confident about fulfilling the city's commitments on environmental protection."

Du Shaozhong, the deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the European IV standard was implemented in 2005. "Although The European Union has taken local agriculture, industry and market into consideration, the full implementation of the standard will take at least 10 years."

"China is still a developing country and therefore cannot adopt the same standard used by developed countries. It is impossible for Beijing's present air situation to reach the European standard. But from a long view, the European standard is one Beijing should learn from," Du said.