Air quality in the Chinese capital has improved year by year
since 2001, said Yu Xiaoxuan, vice-director of the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG)
Venue and Environment Department.
"I am pretty confident that Beijing will have fulfilled its
environmental promises before the Olympic Games kick off," he told a press
conference at the Beijing Olympic Media Center on Thursday.
When it bid for the right to hold the 2008 Games, Beijing
pledged to bring down the content of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, nitric oxide and inhalable particles in the atmosphere to
a level consistent with current Chinese standards. In the six
subsequent years the amount of those pollutants has dropped by 13.8
percent on average. The sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide content
in the air already meets the national standards, Yu said.
He added that the municipal government is going to take several
measures to curb motor vehicle emissions and industrial pollutions
to further improve air quality.
(BOCOG February 2, 2007)
