China’s big cities move to clean the air

Shanghai has unveiled plans changes to public transport and banning of certain vehicles alongside other measures to improve air quality.

Their plans are to reduce the level of particle matter in the air by 20 per cent by 2017 with transport as one of six sectors to be targeted.

With the highest levels of pollution in the world, this is a step in the direction of making China a more eco-friendly country.

Part of their plan is also to increase the use of public transport which only functions in some bigger cities.

Pei Xiao, deputy chief of public transportation said that: “In 2015, the use of public transportation will reach 50 per cent in downtown districts.”

Already by the end of this year, all Shanghai’s buses will be forced to comply with the National Standard of vehicle omissions which will make a significant impact on the pollution levels.

Energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions and air pollution from transport are priorities in China’s current five year plan.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, government officials, private sector workers and civil society representatives discussed how to improve fuel efficiency in the freight sector. Although, only 4% of vehicles in China are trucks, they are responsible for 57% of the polluting emissions and the number of trucks in China is increasing every year by close to 10%.

“Improving fuel efficiency from trucks is thus a unique win-win opportunity for both economy and environment,” says Sophie Punte, Executive Director of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities.

In Beijing, they used the US’s SmartWay Transport Partnership as an example of successful government-industry collaboration for making commercial road and rail freight transport greener.

China has embraced sustainable transport and has been undergoing major changes to lead the world in sustainable urban transport expansion. Dozens of cities are expanding non-motorised transport with Hangzou having built the largest public bike program in the world.

In Guangzhou, the award-winning Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has the world’s highest bus flows with one bus every ten seconds during the morning rush hour. The Guangzhou BRT is a model for the affordable low-carbon high volume public transport solutions that other parts of the world need.

The system carries more than triple the single directional passenger flow of any other BRT system in Asia and over 850,000 people now use the system which includes urban villages in its outreach.

Improvements in sustainable transport generally improve economic outcomes for the city overall as they lower the cost of travel and give better access to jobs.

One of the considerations is to scale the Guangzou BRT sustem to a national and international level.