21-23 April 2009, Jinan, China

28-31 October 2008, Beijing China

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.

A vice minister of China's Environmental Protection Ministry said here on Thursday it had adopted the first pollutant emissions limit on fertilizer producers nationwide.

Hong Kong will soon introduce one-off and accelerated tax cuts for environment-friendly machinery and installations, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Saturday.

24-25 April 2008, Jinan, China

China is a fast growing auto market that is still far from reaching its potential, granting Beijing powerful leverage in shaping the world's next generation of eco-friendly cars. By Kirby Chien

17-18 April 2008, Shanghai, China

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.

As sport utility vehicles (SUVs) become increasingly unpopular in Europe and the United States, the gas-guzzling wagons are capturing the attention of an expanding class of Chinese consumers: the new rich. By Yingling Liu

Air pollution in Beijing reached its highest level on Tuesday as a sandstorm from the north shrouded the capital in dust, choking pedestrians and delaying flights, the government and reports said.

The growth in China's emissions of the primary greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, CO2, is far greater than previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases much more difficult, finds a new analysis by economists at the University of California.

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.

Two of the world's largest coal producing nations - Australia and China - signed a formal agreement for research and testing of clean coal technology Thursday in Beijing.

At first glance, the potential of the green car industry in China is as obvious as a Hummer trying to crash a clean-energy convention. By Chris O'Brien

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

China's industrial heartland recorded an average of 75.7 days of haze in 2007 (by James Pomfret and Guo Shipeng, Reuters)

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

The demand for public transport in southern Taiwan has decreased. At a time when oil prices are rising, 250 remote bus routes will be axed by the end of this month. By Lee Ker-tsung

State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), November 2007

Nearly two years since the first line of Beijing's bus rapid transit (BRT) system began operation, the rapid passenger transport system is contributing to the reduction of the city's severely congested roads and associated air pollution for which the city is infamous. By Laura Tyrer

It takes five to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United States, like a slow-moving storm.

The traffic-control measures aimed at ridding the air of pollution during the Olympic Games could end up affecting people in Beijing's neighboring provinces, a source familiar with the plans said. By Liu Weifeng, China Daily

22-24 October 2007, Shanghai, China

The Beijing government has finally decided to cut subway fares by about 30 percent amid efforts to boost public transport, ease road congestion and improve air quality ahead of the Olympics.

The municipal government is earmarking 110 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) to improve its public transportation system, reduce the price of tickets and ease congestion.

Chronic bronchitis and emphysema caused by passive smoking are set to kill nearly two million people in China who today are aged over 50, according to a study published Friday.

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.

No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo. By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley

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

A new study of the role played by pollution-filled “brown clouds” over South Asia offers hope that the region may be able to arrest some of the alarming retreat of Himalayan glaciers which provide a lifeline for billions of people by feeding the major rivers in the region, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Because of a lag in fuel development, the implementation of the China 3 vehicle emission standards has been postponed for two and a half years, from this July originally to December 31, 2009.

All buses and taxis will be LPG-fueled in this southern city by 2010.

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 115, Number 7, July 2007

Disappointment was the overriding emotion on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. By Samanthi Dissanayake, BBC News, Hong Kong

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

By Glynda Bathan, CAI-Asia Local Network Coordinator

China has promised to put climate change at the heart of its energy policies but says developed countries have an “unshirkable responsibility” to take the lead on the issue by cutting emissions. By Richard McGregor

China will put climate change at the heart of its economic and energy policies but without committing itself to “quantified emissions-reduction targets”, according to Beijing’s first comprehensive policy document on the issue. By Richard McGregor

By Li Shuang, CAI-Asia China Project Office

29-30 May 2006, Beijing Friendship Hotel, Beijing, China

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

State Council

by Yue Xin

Effectivity date: 30 December 2005

Ministry of Communications, Center for Sustainable Transportation (CST)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) and China's State Environmental Protection, Administration (SEPA), kicked off a diesel retrofit demonstration project in Beijing on November 10, 2005.

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

A report prepared for the World Bank examines various options designed to mitigate the environmental and social challenges associated with increasing motorization in China. Options explored by the report include the introduction of dynamic road pricing, promotion of mass transit systems, measures to protect cyclists and pedestrians, stronger fuel quality requirements, increased automobile fuel economy standards, and alternative fuel vehicles.

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.

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

Asian Development Bank's new report evaluates some of the major issues for railways in the People's Republic of China arising from World Trade Organization accession.

Compiled by Xiaojia BAO, CAI-Asia China Project

National Bureau of Statistics of China

Atmospheric Research, 84, 265–279, 2006

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

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

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

Atmospheric Environment, 41(2), 417-431, 2007

Released on December 6, 2006 and effect on the same day

Atmospheric Environment, 41(5), 1091–1106, 2007

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

By Atsuo Sagawa and Koichi Koizumi

The first project steering committee meeting held on 15 July 2005, co-chaired by SEPA and CAI-Asia, officially establishes the CAI-Asia China Program.

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.

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.