China plans gets tough on vehicles high on emissions

It has been more than a week since the last heavy pollution, with occasional rainstorms keeping the smog at bay, and it is easy to forget the pollution on days like this.

China is the world's largest car market, both as a producer and a consumer, and is also the world's great carbon emitter. Car production and sales both exceeded 20 million units for the first time in 2013, while car ownership increased to 137 million last year.

However, Beijing residents know how quickly the yellow- tinged smog can descend, so plans from the ministry of environmental protection to take nearly six million high-emission vehicles off the road this year to reduce pollution, have been welcomed.

Car pollutants are a major cause for smog in Chinese cities. In Beijing, local media reported, cars discharged more than 30 per cent of the capital's PM 2.5, a particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrograms that caused hazardous smog. In Shanghai, the percentage is about 25 per cent.

The plan also sets goals for reducing coal-fired heating systems and other emissions, but cars are a highly public target.

More than 2.4 million vehicles will be taken off roads in the municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, along with another four municipalities and provinces along the Yangtze river delta and Pearl river delta, according to the ministry.

The scheme is part of an action plan, issued by the general office of the state council, China’s cabinet, which has been distributed to local authorities. They have been urged to come up with stimulus policies and to better enforce stronger laws to eradicate such vehicles.