The Beijing Municipality will take new measures to raise the number of days of good air quality to 67 percent and cut down the emission of sulfur dioxide by 10 percent in 2007, according to information from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.

To bring the coal-burning pollutants under control, the city will use new energies to replace coal for the 1,105 remaining boilers under 20 tons in the downtown area. For the 20,000 families living in one-story houses in the Dongcheng and Xicheng districts, coal will be substituted by electricity. Coal, now used by the residents living within the Fifth-Ring Road, an area where urban and rural areas overlap, will also be gradually replaced by other energies.

To control vehicle pollutants, authorities are going to enforce the IV national emission standard for new vehicles in 2008. In addition, a total of 2,580 old buses and 5,000 taxis and other highly polluting vehicles will be taken off the roads.

New measures will be taken to control industrial pollution. The city's five coal-burning power plants will complete their dust removal, desulfuration and denitration plans. The Capital Steel Plant will have to cut down production by 4 million tons, while the No II Chemical Plant and the Organic Chemical Plant will stop production altogether.

Since 1988 Beijing has gone through 12 phases of air quality control. During the 13th phase in 2007, the city will also strive to control dust pollution, protect its ecological environment and promote the "Green Olympics" concepts.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2007)