International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogges has said Beijing is running out of time to tackle bad air quality that could disrupt next year’s Games. He said some Olympic events may have to be put off because of poor air quality.

Jacques Rogge said, ‘Time may be running out, and the conditions required for the athletes competing in endurance disciplines might not be met 100% on a given day.

‘For this reason, we may have to reschedule some events so that the health of athletes is scrupulously protected.’

Far, far more reassuring was Hein Verbruggen, a top International Olympic Committee (IOC) official, who earlier said that pollution could put back some events but described such delays as ‘normal, standard procedure’ that would not detract from the success of the Games.

He stressed, ‘There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is of any risk or danger that we see for the organization of next year’s Games.’

Earlier the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) congratulated Beijing on a $12-billion clean-up which had been carried out since it won the right to host the Games in 2001.

Sarah Liao, Hong Kong’s former environment minister, who is an adviser to the Beijing Olympic organizing committee probably summed up the situation the best, ‘For the short period of the Games, air quality will be fine. Our challenge is curbing pollution over the long term.’

Beijing Vice Major Liu Jingmin, a delegate to the five-yearly Party congress, said at a news conference that the blue skies Beijing was experiencing was due to the wind coming down from the north that cleaned the air in the host city of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He said, ‘Frankly speaking, we didn’t take any measures. It’s the weather that played the role.’ Such honesty in a politician is rare and is to be applauded.

Taking a longer view, however, the situation is improving.

In 2006, Beijing registered 240 ‘blue sky’ days, or days with fairly good air quality (the scientific definition is not clear), a rise of 64 days from the previous year. In September ‘blue sky’ days totaled 25, setting a record high in seven years.

Liu Jingmin, who is also executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, said Beijing would materialize its promise of ‘Green Olympics’ by not only improving the city’s ecology and environment, but also adopting a ‘green’, environment-friendly, approach to the management of city affairs.

Partly this is being done by slashing bus and subway fares. Partly by doubling the tax on motorcycles, passenger cars, sedans and trucks.
Renewable energy has been widely used in the of Olympic projects. For instance, the residences of athletes in the Olympic Village will be installed with special heating and refrigerating facilities powered by energy tapped from a neighboring sewage disposal plant.
Photovoltaic technology based on solar energy is widely used in the competition venues.
The city’s first wind power plant has been set up in the north.
The city has moved 167 pollutive factories to the suburbs or remoter areas. At the same time of the removal, they have undergone technical innovations.
The city used to have 16,000 coal-consuming boilers. Now 15,000 of them have been upgraded to use clean energy forms.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published the preliminary program for the upcoming 7th World Conference on Sport and the Environment. People from within and outside the Olympic Movement will meet and contribute to this event which will be hosted in Beijing from October 25 to 27.

This seventh edition of the Conference is being staged jointly by the IOC and the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee, in close partnership with the United Nations Environment Program.

The IOC considers the environment as the third dimension of the Olympic Movement, alongside sport and culture. The objective is to ensure that the Games do not have a negative impact on the environment, but instead develop and enhance it and leave a green legacy, as well as promoting awareness of the importance of a healthy environment.

Thus a complete session will be devoted to Beijing’s environment partners, who will present a progress report on the preparations for the 2008 Games. They promise to be the Games that started the greening of China.

In a sense what is happening has a resonance in the old Scottish proverb about business. ‘First you get on, then you get honest, finally you get honor.’ China is moving firmly into the third phase.
Source: Beijing 2008

The traffic in Beijing is not one of its great attractions. China is having a love affair with the automobile and although driving standards have not, as yet, come up to world standards, the number of vehicles is mind-boggling. And more than 1,000 new vehicles are hitting the roads of Beijing each day. It is inevitable that unpopular measures such as road-pricing, as used with great success in London, will one day be needed.

The most urgent problem is the image these traffic-choked streets will create for visitors to next year’s Olympic Games. Not good.

According to China Daily, the authorities are hoping to reduce traffic congestion by 20% to 30% by keeping one million cars off the roads for the duration of the games.

Some of these will be government vehicles where restrictions should work except among the higher echelons who will no doubt not be taking public transport. To dissuade private citizens from taking their vehicles there will be strict parking restrictions around the venues.

In addition, competitors and their families, volunteers, employees and spectators will be provided with free public transport during the Games. A special bus network linking all Olympic venues and training centers is planned. This happened in Sydney during the Australian Olympic Games and it worked wonderfully well. It needs a lot of planning and co-operation but it can be done.

In recent years, Beijing claims to have taken a more aggressive approach to promote public transport. Around 13 million people use its public transport system each day, a 10% rise since 2004.

When Beijing bid for the right to hold the Olympic Games, it promised to use a certain number of ultra-low-emission buses and taxis, as well as some zero emission vehicles in specific areas such as the Olympic Village. More than 2,800 ‘greener’ buses will be purchased ahead of the Games plus advanced telematics systems to keep the traffic moving.

In the past three years, Beijing has spent RMB90 billion on transport projects, and that, according to the China Daily, will increase by 10% over the next three years.
Source: Engaging China