The Olympic Games will help Beijing reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions, a leading environmental expert has claimed.
China Research Center of Recycle Economy Director Wu Jisong, a
senior advisor of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of
the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), said pollutant discharge had been
sharply reduced since the capital bid for the Games.
"The main reason is adjustment of the industrial structure of
the city," he said.
Service industries, which discharge the least pollutants, now
account for more than 70 percent of the gross domestic product of
the city.
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Artificial lake at the
Beijing Olympic Stadium
The adoption of advanced pollutant-reduction technologies in
plants and the increasing use of clean energy resources had also
contributed to the reduction, he said.
Olympic venues employing the latest energy conservation methods
were almost pollution-free and would influence future construction
in the city.
"The vast forestation campaign for the Games has also led to a
reduction in carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas," he
said.
Beijing was the only provincial-level administrative region last
year that achieved a national goal of reducing major pollutants by
2 percent.
Speaking at the Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum, Beijing Mayor
Wang Qishan said the city will reduce sulfur dioxide discharge by
20 percent and chemical oxygen demand by 15 percent before
2010.
(China Daily September 12, 2007)
