Can Beijing go Green before the Olympics?

China conducted a radical four-day experiment in Beijing, ordering more than a million cars off the roads in an attempt to rid the air of pollutants. Preparations for the 2008 Olympics are in full swing in China and this experiment was to see if the quality of the air could be improved around Beijing by reducing the number of cars on the road.

China has already moved many factories and mills around Beijing to the outskirts of the city in its efforts to improve air quality. When that did not yield significant improvement in the air quality, China is now focussing on the largest contributors to pollution, cars.

China has imposed new rules requiring cars with odd and even license plates to ply on the roads on alternate days and there are heavy fines for violators. Emergency vehicles and taxicabs are exempt from these rules. Public transportation trains and buses are running longer hours to compensate the commuters. China has also replaced several thousand old buses and taxis with natural gas vehicles. Coal is being replaced with other sources of power for about 20,000 families living in single story houses around Beijing.

China has been in the public eye for having heavily polluted cities and extremely congested traffic, both of which it considers as embarrasing during the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge had expressed concerns regarding holding events such as the endurance sports in Beijing due to the pollution level and its effect on performance atheletes.

It will be interesting to see if these measures yield any results. Though Beijing has put tremendous amount of effort to clean the air locally, the wind can bring smog and pollution from villages and cities miles away which are still heavily polluted.