Last week the Chinese government temporarily forced millions of Beijing motorists off the road in an effort designed to help clear the city's notoriously polluted air. The four-day initiative was a pilot program for a similar car ban that officials plan to implement during the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing. After decades of rapid economic growth, air pollution has become a serious environmental health problem in the country, and Chinese leaders are determined to clean Beijing's skies in preparation for its turn as Olympic host.
Each day during the ban, over one million motorists were prevented from driving their cars. Vehicles with even-numbered license plates were not allowed to drive in the city on Friday and Sunday, while those with odd-numbered plates were prohibited on Saturday and Monday.
The results were modest but noticeable. Average traffic speeds rose 53%, and despite humid, calm days, skies did clear somewhat.
Urban Air Pollution in China
The car ban is the most recent example of broader efforts to curb air pollution being undertaken by China's leaders, including forcing factories out of Beijing, and ceasing construction projects in advance of the Olympic Games' commencement. These officials are concerned that smog-filled skies and traffic-snarled thoroughfares during the Olympics will undermine their efforts to use the Games to showcase China's growing international importance and its rapidly-modernizing capital city.
Despite these efforts, however, air pollution remains an extremely serious environmental health problem in China. In fact, a host of recent studies have found China to have some of the worst air pollution in the world. A recent World Bank report, for example, includes four Chinese cities in its list of the 10 urban centers with the lowest air qualitiy.
The map below also gives a sense of the severity of China's air pollution problem, even when compared with other major polluters.
Particulate Air Pollution in Selected Cities, 1990-1995
Source: World Bank, 2004
Similarly, satellite imagery taken by the European Space Agency has shown air pollution increasing by approximately 50% over the last decade. As a result, Beijing and its neighboring provinces now have the worst levels of nitrogen dioxide on the planet.
Public Health Impacts
These high levels of airborne pollutants have disturbingly large impacts on public health. According to one study by the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning, 411,000 premature deaths occur in China each year as a result of air pollution. Much of this increased mortality can be attributed to respiratory and cardiovascular ailments that are either caused or exacerbated by air pollution.
Causes and Solutions
China's air pollution woes are caused by a variety of factors. According to the World Bank, "The primary determinants of PM concentrations are the scale and composition of economic activity, population, the energy mix, the strength of local pollution regulation, and geographic and atmospheric conditions that affect pollutant dispersion in the atmosphere." China scores poor marks on many of these risk factors.
Its breakneck economic growth, for example, has created huge amounts of pollution along with wealth. And a related explosion in car ownership has meant a concomitant spike in tailpipe emissions as more and more Chinese can afford to purchase an automobile. In the past five years the number of cars in Beijing has nearly doubled and now stands at 2.5 million. China's reliance on coal (an extremely dirty fuel source) and insufficient environmental regulations are also to blame.
Sources of Electricity, 1997
Source: World Bank, 1997
Given this cocktail of contributing factors, China will face many challenges when attempting to clean its skies. The need for effective regulations and policies that can reconcile economic growth with clean, breathable air will not only be a challenge for the upcoming Olypmics, but one that will likely occupy Chinese officials for years to come.
Related Links:
EMBARQ, the WRI Center for Sustainable Transportation: Report on "China Motorization Trends"
WHO: Global estimates of burden of disease caused by the environmental and occupational risks
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