9-10 November 2009, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Bicycle rental companies in Beijing are going broke because nobody wants to hire their services. By Yang Wanli , China Daily

China plans to slap a tax on tailpipe emissions. By Chen Jia, China Daily

China is forecast to produce 12 million units of vehicles for the whole year of 2009, to set a record high, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planning agency, said in Beijing Saturday.

On Aug. 19th, the 12th session of Guangdong-Hong Kong collaboration meeting revealed that the Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou Express Railway will be put into construction late this year.

U.S. Department of Energy research shows eastern China's air pollution during the past 50 years has reduced the amount of light rainfall by 23 percent.

Beijing is enjoying the best air quality this decade because of measures taken during last year's Olympic Games, officials have said. By Michael Bristow

4-5 August 2009, Qingdao, China

In the run-up to the world's leaders gathering in Copenhagen this December to negotiate a new climate treaty, there is plenty of talk, and even some action, from some of the world's largest countries in addressing carbon footprints on a national level. By Matthew Wheeland

A total of 29,866 people died in traffic accidents on Chinese roads in the first six months this year, a 10.5 percent drop year-on-year, the Ministry of Public Security announced Monday.

China and the United States, the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, launched a joint research effort on Wednesday to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles and buildings. By Doug Palmer

14-15 July 2009, Shanghai, China

Nearly 80 percent of the 15,217 urban Chinese said in an online poll that traffic jam haunts their cities during rush hours, a survey by the China Youth Daily showed.

11 to 13 May, Beijing, P.R. China

21 - 23 April 2009, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

18-20 March 2009, Shanghai, China

A regional conference on public transportation opened yesterday in Taipei, with 300 delegates from 22 countries gathering to discuss aspects of sustainable urban development and to observe Taiwan's progress in this regard.

Ever wondered which is the most efficient mode of transportation in Beijing?

The First Registration Tax exemption for electric vehicles will be extended five more years to promote their use.

Lakes, rivers and the air in many places in China are still polluted, some seriously, in spite of continuous efforts to control pollution, a Chinese environmental official said Tuesday.

Beijing's crowded and polluted streets have seen a sharp increase of nearly 66,000 vehicles this year, a 13 per cent increase from the previous year, state media reported on Tuesday.

Financed by the Science and Technology Development Fund, in collaboration with the Department of Civil Engineering and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology University of Macau, the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical services and the Environment Council initiated a project to study air quality in Macau with a real-time mobile laboratory prepared to monitor air Condition in real-time, from February 18 to 24, 2009 in different areas of Macau.

The Beijing municipal government has approved the construction of subway Line 15, which is expected to start within the year.

The local government is to spend 2.6 billion yuan (US$379.8 million) this year on new buses to service city routes, according to transport administration officials. By Dong Zhen

Chinese government regulators had clearer skies and easier breathing in mind in the summer of 2008 when they temporarily shuttered some factories and banished many cars in a pre-Olympic sprint to clean up Beijing’s air. And that's what they got.

15-17 December 2008, Beijing, China

6-7 November 2008, The Ritz-Cartlon Hotel, Beijing, China

When Zhang Ximan bought her second car before the Olympics, she did not expect Beijing's vehicle restrictions to become permanent. By Qiu Lin, China Daily

China should push electric cars to curb its dependence on imported oil and foreign automobile technology, although they offer smaller cuts in carbon emissions than alternatives like hybrids, McKinsey and Company said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending 800 million yuan (about US$116.9 million) in a partial credit guarantee program that will support private sector-led energy efficiency projects in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

With his shades, polo shirt and Cherokee Jeep parked by the roadside, Sun Ke looks like a typical member of the international yuppie classes. By Richard Spencer

The Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting in China (AMFIC see picture) initiative continues to monitor air quality for Beijing as the Paralympics began today.

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 116, Number 9, September 2008

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 116, Number 9, September 2008

The massive effort to clear the skies over Beijing for the Summer Olympics paid off, the city's environmental authority said Monday, with the capital seeing its cleanest air in a decade.

Residents of Beijing are so pleased with the clean air they enjoyed during the Olympics that they are petitioning the government to keep stringent pollution restrictions in place. By Richard Spencer

Beijing is enjoying its best air quality in a decade thanks to steps taken for the Olympics, authorities said Monday, amid a push by some locals for the anti-pollution measures to be made permanent.

China is expected to issue policies in favor of new energy vehicles this year, according to Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities.

Construction of the transport infrastructure within the 4-sq-km Sino-Singaporean Eco-city start-up area of Tianjin has begun, a local official said yesterday. By Wu Jiao, China Daily

Images of the Beijing sky-line, seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been never far from the world's TV screens over recent days and weeks.

As the Olympic Games get under way, Beijing has forced half of its 3.3 million vehicles off the road, halted construction and idled factories to try to reveal the blue skies it promised the world. By Katie Merx, Free Press

An Indian doctor in Beijing, the booming capital of the world’s second-largest car market after the US, made two priority purchases when he moved here after four years in New Delhi: toothpaste and a bicycle.

Zhao Xiaoming, 47, a manager at an overseas-funded company, used to sit comfortably behind the wheel of his car every day and drive to work in downtown Beijing.

China will shut more factories and impose further bans on cars if smog remains a serious problem in Beijing during the Olympic Games.

China is mulling emergency plans to keep Olympic skies clear and may push more cars off the road in Beijing and nearby cities if wind or rain do not disperse smog build-ups, government pollution advisors said on Wednesday.

Olympic host city Beijing and six co-hosts are making last-minute efforts to overhaul public transport systems in order to support the upcoming Olympic Games.

Even with half of private cars off the road, Beijing remains wrapped in a haze of smog.

Beijing's streets are busy with bicycles, buses, taxis, and trucks.

As China has become more industrialized, Beijing and other large cities have struggled with air pollution from cars, factories and construction.

Beijing authorities insisted Thursday air quality in the Chinese capital had improved enough to meet its Olympic targets, even as the city remained shrouded in smog less than a month before the Games.

Sometimes it's the little stories that tell us the most. By Peter Navarro

The city of Xi'an, home to the world-renowned Terracotta Army and other cultural relics, faces a huge challenge of balancing preservation of its cultural heritage with the demands of a modern city.

As Beijing remains shrouded in thick grey smog less than 50 days before it hosts the Olympics, city authorities have now decided to take vehicles with odd or even license plates off the roads on alternate days from July to September. By Reshma Patil, Hindustan Times

Potential air pollution wafted from China to Japan around the time of the Beijing Olympics is the subject of a new study by a Valparaiso University professor.

With the Olympic Games in sight, the Chinese Government is committed to improving the air quality in Beijing, and has had measures in place since 1998 which have already made a difference.

This summer's Beijing Olympics will be "basically" carbon neutral thanks to a series of energy saving measures such as the use of solar power and an afforestation program, a senior official said on Thursday.

Beijing saw 86 "blue sky" days, or days with fairly good air quality, in the first four months of this year, a sign that years of anti-pollution efforts made by the Olympic host city continue to pay off.

The Chinese Government will stop construction in Beijing to clean the city's air for the Olympics. By Stephen McDonell, China correspondent

Starting at the end of 2009, new vehicles on sale in the Shanghai market must meet the China IV emissions standard, just after Beijing, according to Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau (SEPB).

The International Olympic Committee has received "assurances" from Beijing Olympic organisers regarding internet access and live television broadcasts during the Games, as well as efforts to deal with the capital's noxious air pollution.

Beijing will meet its pledge to have clean air for the Summer Olympics, an environmental official said Tuesday, downplaying worries the city's notorious smog will overshadow the Games.

Measures aimed at providing clean air for August's Olympics must not be too disruptive to the city's economy or the lives of the people, organizing committee official and Beijing vice mayor Liu Jingmin said on Wednesday. By Liu Zhen

With the Olympic Games breathing down Beijing’s neck, the city is racing against the clock to ensure it meets one of the commitments it made when it won the bid for the games in 2001: blue skies. By Anumita Roychowdhury

As the lead exercise physiologist for the U.S. Olympic Committee, Randy Wilber has been fielding one bizarre question after another from Americans training for the Games in Beijing. By Juliet Macur

A new study has cast doubts about whether air quality has improved in Beijing and has concluded that "irregularities" in the city government's system of measuring air pollution have allowed the city to meet environmental targets linked to the coming Olympic Games. By Jim Yardley

China has introduced cleaner fuel standards in its capital Beijing, its latest effort to curb the city's notorious pollution ahead of the Olympic Games in August.

Most Hong Kong people were willing to pay for a tougher crackdown on chronic air pollution through road pricing and other measures, a government-backed report said on Monday. Reuters

China began deliberating a draft law aimed at boosting energy saving and emissions reductions on Sunday, its latest effort to curb widespread resource waste and degradation.

China, the world's top emitter of sulphur dioxide, has managed to cut emissions of the acid-rain causing pollutant in first half of 2007, but the government said on Tuesday that meeting national targets would be tough.

Emissions of a key air pollutant fell slightly in China in the first half of the year but water quality worsened, the country's environmental watchdog said Tuesday, urging tougher measures to deal with a grim pollution situation.

It was the frugal minicar that lured the Liu family to the showroom, but it was the full-size sedan that hooked them. By Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer

Prepared under the auspices of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

Wang Yuqing, deputy director of SEPA (Speech on “Economical Society Building and Energy Conservation in Transport Sector, International Diesel Development Workshop”)

Effectivity date: 30 December 2005

Ministry of Communications, Center for Sustainable Transportation (CST)

Monthly News Published by Auto Project on Energy and Climate Change (APECC), China Program

CDM Country Guides is a series of manuals on CDM project development for Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand developed by IGES. These guidebooks aim at facilitating CDM project developments in Asia by providing essential information to both project developers and potential investors.

National Bureau of Statistics of China

Chinese Science Bulletin (SCI), 52, 608-615, 2007

Atmospheric Research, 84(2), 169-181, 2007

By Chak K. Chan and Xiaohong Yaoa, Atmospheric Environment, Volume 42, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 1-42

Published by Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC)

A report of monitoring results for the period between January and June 2008

Beijing's smog can choke first-time arrivals. By Calum MacLeod, USA Today

China is in the process of formulating national standard to control petrolium/gasoline vapor pollution at storage, transportation and selling processes.

In the urban planning literature, it is frequently explicitly asserted or strongly implied that ongoing urban sprawl and decentralization can lead to development patterns that are unsustainable in the long run.

As a result of its rapid economic development and large volume of coal burning, China is faced with serious coal-smoke pollution in urban areas. In large cities such as Beijing and Chongqing, people are clearly suffering the adverse health effects of coal-smoke pollution, with PM-10 and SO2 as the main pollutants.

China and Nepal are engaged in developing modern infrastructural ways and means to further secure their bilateral ties.

It's a simple pleasure, but Xu Beilu savors it daily: gliding past snarled traffic on her motorized bicycle, relaxed and sweat-free alongside the pedal-pushing masses. China, the world's bicycle kingdom — one for every three inhabitants — is going electric. By Elaine Kurtenbach

Urban car transportation is a cause of climate change but is also associated with additional burdens such as traffic congestion and air pollution.

The United States and China are the top two energy consumers in the world.

In August 1999 a delegation from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) visited The National Academies in Washington to discuss opportunities for collaboration on a study of the future of personal use vehicles in China.

Li Kunsheng, EPB

This collaborative study between the NRC and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) addresses the problems facing China in the next twenty years as it attempts to provide personal transport desired by millions of Chinese, while preserving the environment and the livability of its cities. According to Song Jian, president of the CAE, the decision has already been taken to produce a moderate cost family car in China, which will greatly increase the number of vehicles on the roads.

Jonathan Weinert, Joan Ogden, Dan Sperling, Andrew Burke

Although the Kyoto Protocol is an important step, its impact on global warming, seen in isolation, will be small.

David G. Streets (Decision and Information Sciences Division, DIS/900 Argonne National Laboratory 9700 South Cass Avenue Argonne, IL 60439 USA)

Full report released by SEPA (in Chinese). Sections 1 and 2 translated into English by Li Shuang.

Compiled by Shan Huang, CAI-Asia China Project

Beijing’s environmental watchdog said it considered charging emission fees on vehicles in order to improve air quality and curb rapid car growth.

Beijing's improving energy efficiency and air quality were a priority for the 2008 Olympic Games organizers, according to a newly published post-Games assessment report Wednesday.

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 116, Number 5, May 2008

Air pollution has become the most serious environmental problem for Hong Kong, affecting not only public health but also the city's ability to attract and retain foreign investments.

Over the past 15 years, air pollution has been the most highly visible and widely discussed environmental problem in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's port has ranked number one in the world (in terms of throughput) in all years since 1995 with the exception of 1998 when it ranked number two.

This report, which was based on extensive consultation with stakeholders from both government and the private sector, highlights the fact that many private sector port operators and ship-owners have already taken voluntary measures to improve environmental performance, and are willing to do more.