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Adrian Wan

Major obstacles remain if Beijing is to bring air pollution under control, its mayor has warned, while admitting the city fell short of last year's target.

Speaking at the opening of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Friday, Wang Anshun said pollution and a growing population were among the most pressing problems to be solved - exactly what he said at the same meeting last year.
The average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - the pollutants considered the most dangerous to health - fell by 4 per cent last year, short of the 5 per cent reduction target, he said.
The target was missed even though 392 companies were closed for polluting, 476,000 old vehicles were taken off the road, and 66,000 hectares of green areas were planted.
"We face major difficulties in controlling the population size and are under tight resource and environmental constraints," Wang said. "We still have a long, difficult way to go before we can control air pollution and ease traffic congestion."
This year, the Environmental Protection Law would be strictly enforced to clean up the city's air, he said. The reduction target remains 5 per cent.
"We will step up fiscal support, ensure zero coal-burning in core areas, basically phase out coal-fired boilers in all six urban districts, and reduce coal consumption and replace soft coal with hard coal by 1.2 million tonnes in rural areas," he said.
Plans were under way to eliminate a further 200,000 old vehicles and add 600 hectares of urban green areas, he said.
There were also plans to shut 300 polluting businesses in the manufacturing, forging and small-furniture industries.
Missing last year's target meant the city had further to go to cut emissions by 25 per cent by 2017 compared with 2012 levels, said Yan Li, Greenpeace East Asia's head of climate and energy, referring to the plan approved by the State Council for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.
"We have seen the Beijing government take some concrete actions in the past year to ease pollution, but obviously that isn't going to be enough," she said.
Wang said another key goal was to "import" high-calibre individuals to advance innovation and entrepreneurship.
"We will improve the evaluation and incentive mechanisms to identify talented people, so that they will be willing to come and stay," he said.
Companies in Zhongguancun - dubbed the mainland's Silicon Valley - earned 3.57 trillion yuan (about HK$4.5 trillion) last year - up 17.2 per cent on the year before.
On public safety, he said the municipal government would address the causes of social conflicts.
"We will … promote unity and progress among ethnic groups in the capital and let religious figures and believers play a positive role in promoting economic and social development," he said.
The city's gross regional product (GRP) grew 7.3 per cent last year compared with 2013. The per capita income of urban and rural residents increased in real terms by 7.2 per cent and 8.6 per cent. The capital's target for GRP growth this year is 7 per cent.
 


Beijing has long way to go to meet clean air goal, mayor says

A journalist browses his smartphone as Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun reads a work report on stage during an opening session of the 14th Beijing Municipality People's Congress. Photo: AP

Beijing mayor Wang Anshun addresses the opening of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. He admitted the capital had missed its targets for air pollution cuts last year. Photo: AP

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China

Déjà vu as mayor tells congress pollution and population are the most pressing problems - and admits falling short of reduction target


Major obstacles remain if Beijing is to bring air pollution under control, its mayor has warned, while admitting the city fell short of last year's target.


Beijing has long way to go to meet clean air goal, mayor says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Déjà vu as mayor tells congress pollution and population are the most pressing problems - and admits falling short of reduction target

Déjà vu as mayor tells congress pollution and population are the most pressing problems - and admits falling short of reduction target