Beijing Strives to Create “Green” Olympics

In order to appear as a world leader on environmental issues, Beijing has come up with the slogan, the “green” Olympics for the 2008 games. In order for the slogan to have any weight, Beijing must improve its environmental protection, since the area currently has one of the worst records of pollution in the world. Environmentalists of all stripes here at Green University should be excited by the, admittedly limited, measures China is taking to clean up its act for, and probably only for, the Games. “We will take strong measures to save energy, lower energy consumption, protect the environment” and use limited farmland more effectively, Premier Wen Jiabao said at the opening of the annual session of China’s legislature on March 5, 2007.¹ Beijing officials are combating head-on issues of air pollution, limited fresh water supply, and desertification. To take action against these by-products of the extreme economic and industrial growth China has undergone will require compromising these economic goals, at least in the Beijing area.

While “placing fourth in 2004’s ranking of China’s most livable cities, Beijing tumbled to number fifteen in 2005 according to an annual survey conducted by the Horizon Group, an independent, Beijing-based research company, that evaluated traffic conditions, environment and air quality among others criteria for quality of life.”² To reduce air pollution from construction particles, all construction must cease by the end of 2006, say city leaders. Experts estimate that dust stirred up by the relentless construction in the capital contributes some 20 to 30 percent of the suspended particulates in the air. In September 2005, the European Satellite Agency issued a report in which Beijing and its environs in northeast China were found to have the world’s highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, a key gas in smog coming from power plants, heavy industry and vehicle emissions that can cause fatal lung cancer. Levels of nitrogen dioxide were found to have increased 50 percent in China’s air since 1996.³

Beijing is spending billions of dollars to relocate upwards of 200 polluting factories and to install pipelines and support infrastructure for converting from coal to natural gas. On Friday, February 9, 2007 Beijing’s biggest steel company, and one of the city’s largest polluters, announced its plan to cut production by about one third by the end of the year. The Shougang Group’s main plant of a dozen smokestacks is located 12 miles from Beijing center. The company’s steel production will move from 12.48 million tons in 2006 to 4 million tons by the end of 2007 and will end completely in 2010 according to Zhu Jimin, president of the state-owned company. Carbon dioxide emissions will be down 77 percent from 2006 levels, according to Zhu, dust down by 59 percent and smoke by 57 percent. “This will make new contributions toward Beijing holding the Olympics,” Zhu said. “ The company has made a great effort in environmental protection.”⁴ The group started to relocate production in 2005 to Caofeidian, an island 225 km southeast of Beijing, and the company is expected to move all its Beijing-based production facilities there by 2010. A new plant on Caofeidian is scheduled to begin operations by the end of next year with an annual capacity of 9.75 million tons.⁵

In 2005, 4,000 old polluting buses and 30,000 cabs were removed from service and replaced with newer, less pollution causing vehicles for the Olympics.² The replacement fleet of taxis included newer Hyundais and Volkswagens, which are cleaner than the Chinese-made vehicles. Some of the new buses are “green” machines, powered by liquid natural gas or electricity.⁶ The increasing number of cars and traffic in the capital city causes 40 percent of the suspended particles in the air. This increase in cars comes, in part, from a nearly two-decade-old government policy that promotes the growth of China’s domestic car industry. By 2020, China’s roads are expected to have at least 130 million cars on them. At that point, China will have surpassed the United States in total car ownership. Higher emission standards are being adopted to control pollution from Beijing’s millions of cars, but new vehicle-emissions regulations expected to be fully implemented by 2010, while on par with European Union standards, will not reduce exhaust per vehicle enough to match the exceptional expected growth rate in car ownership.²

Beijing has been producing daily pollution reports since 1999. Yet, until February 2007, officials were referring to the gray pall as wu, or “fog,” even though the semi-desert climate is too dry much of the year for fog, which is produced by water vapor near the ground. In February, city officials introduced warnings specifically for mai, or “haze,” which is produced by pollutant particles suspended in the air. On February 4, the municipal weather bureau said a medium-level haze would settle over the city that night. “Medium,” according to the bureau, meant that citizens should avoid non-essential outdoor activity—suspended inhalable particles had reached a dangerous 300 micrograms per cubic meter. Authorities claim that air quality is improving, thanks to tighter emissions standards for motor vehicles and the moving of one of the city’s biggest polluters, a steel plant in the western suburbs, to an offshore island. The city claimed 241 “blue sky days” last year, though blue-sky days include moderate pollution. This figure is three more than its target and 141 more than 1998. The government wants to ensure the air quality of Beijing improves before the Games to prevent athletes performing below their peak and upsetting tourists.⁷

Another concern for Beijing is having enough clean water and sewage treatment capacity in time for the Games. Authorities are also pushing conservation—aware of the water shortage Beijing faces—and making back-up plans for possible droughts.⁸ It is really these concerns, not a desire to save the planet, that are driving Beijing’s push for conservation – do not let yourself be fooled. “Investment in water-saving facilities and technologies has already paid off as they have helped save about 100 million cubic meters of water in agriculture alone annually, which is almost the storage capacity of a medium-sized reservoir,” said Bi Xiaogang, deputy head of Beijing Water Authority. In case of future water shortages, Beijing is building a water transmission project linking the city’s reservoirs to those in the neighboring province of Hebei. The project should be completed by the end of 2007. In the case of a water emergency, the four large reservoirs in Hebei, each with a capacity of more than 300 million cubic meters, would supply Beijing with water.⁹ The Venue and Environment subgroup of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of XXIX Olympiad reported in February 2007 that the nine sewage treatment plants in Beijing’s urban area treated 780 million cubic meters of wastewater, or 90 percent of Beijing’s total in 2006. This meant Beijing met its water purification target for the Games well ahead of time. The city’s sewage disposal capacity of 2.914 million tons per day now exceeds the objective 2.68 million tons per day set in its bid to host the Games.¹⁰

At the close of January 2007, Beijing city authorities claimed to be on target to meet their goal of improving water quality to “Olympic standards” before the 2008 Games. More than half of the treated wastewater, or 360 million cubic meters, is reused in the agricultural or industrial sectors—particularly in cooling towers in power plants. The government’s goal is to increase the volume of recycled water being reused to 380 million cubic meters (one-tenth of the city’s water supply.) Beijing will reach this goal by completing five more wastewater treatment plants and therefore increasing its urban wastewater treatment ratio to 92 or 93 percent by the end of 2007. Beijing Water Authority chief, Jiao Zhizhong, reported that by the end of 2006, more than 2.16 million rural residents, or 65 percent of Beijing’s total rural population, had access to safe drinking water. Jiao promised that another 300,000 rural residents would have access to safe drinking water by the close of 2007. He also promised to clean Beijing’s canals, moats and lakes, “This year we will ensure that the clean ones stay clean and continue treating the rest, including the lower reaches of Qinghe River near the main venue.”⁹

“Come 2008, we will present the world with a pleasant surprise,” said Wang Xianmin, secretary-general of the China Environment Protection Foundation which is hurrying to improve China’s environmental image before the 2008 games. Among his projects is transforming Beijing’s bleak and barren rooftops into 200,000 square meters of fields of green, creating sky gardens around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Wang aims to have 60 percent of low-rise buildings and 40 percent of high-rise buildings topped with grass and trees by 2008. “The rooftop gardens will beautify Beijing for the Olympics, reduce air pollution and cut down energy consumption,” Wang said.¹¹ Rooftops are not the only place the Chinese government is planting. A billion-dollar and 6,000 mile long forest belt is being installed north of the Great Wall to restrain desert movement and dust storms.¹¹

The severity of desertification and sandstorms has been increasing in China and may threaten the “green” Olympics image. The opening of China’s sixth Annual Environmental Protection Conference on April 17, 2006, coincided with the most severe sandstorm in the history of communist China, according to Beijing’s Xiao Kang magazine. The storm caused 300,000 tons of sand to be dropped on Beijing in one night. Many have suggested that the main cause of such disaster is human actions. Zheng Yi, author of Old Well and Scarlet Memorial, has argued that it is not only human action but also government action in inappropriate proprietorship of land that is to blame. Zheng argues that desertification of grasslands would be reduced if the grasslands had specific property rights and therefore owners would have incentives not to allow their own grasslands to deteriorate to their current condition. “For example, some areas are rented by others for opening up wasteland and planting. These areas have produced a harvest in the first two years, but malpractice results in the same land turning into a desert in few years. Those people using the land only want to reap a quick profit and then run away,” he said.¹²

How Green will the “Green Olympics” be? We won’t know till next year, but Chinese officials are certainly taking unusual steps for the “we don’t play nice with others” central government towards an internationally touted goal of reducing human impact on the environment. Enough for the environmentalists here? They will have to judge themselves, but I think not, especially when you consider the likely erosion of what little freedoms the Chinese “citizens” have from their government. How much rights erosion is allowable in order to prevent a desert erosion? That is for someone else to judge.

1. Associated Press. “China to close dirtiest industries.” MSNBC. 5 Mar 2007. [↩]
2. Bezlova, Antoaneta. “Race to Improve Air Quality for 2008 Olympics.” 9 Feb 2006. [↩] [↩] [↩]
3. Baculinao, Eric. “Beijing battles pollution before Olympics.” NBC News. 20 May 2005. [↩]
4. Associated Press. “Olympic effort: Huge polluter to leave Beijing.” MSNBC. 9 Feb, 2007. [↩]
5. “Beijing steel giant to run at minimum level during 2008 Olympics.” 11 March 2007. [↩]
6. “Cities Guide:Beijing: Getting Around.” The Economist. [↩]
7. “Talking dirty in China.” The Economist. 19 March 2007. [↩]
8. “Green Olympics Dream Coming True.” China Daily. 31 Jan 2007. [↩]
9. “Beijing pursues water conservation as drought continues.” 25 Jan 2007. [↩] [↩]
10. Beijing able to treat 90 pct of sewage.” 5 Feb 2007. [↩]
11. Baculinao, Eric. “Beijing battles pollution before Olympics.” NBC News. 20 May 2005. [↩] [↩]
12. Ping, Lin. “Desertification and Sandstorms Chalelnge China’s “Green” Olympics.” The Epoch Times. 9 Jun 2006. [↩]