Beijing starts new fuel standards for Olympics

CHINA WATCH Beijing’s first piece of green news in 2008: the city is going to start its new fuel standards this year to improve air quality ahead of the Olympic Games, according to Xinhua, the government’s news agency.

Under the new standard, gasoline and diesel sold at all outlets in the capital city must meet the new China IV standards, which are equivalent to the European Union’s Euro IV standards, according to Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau.

Several thousand of Beijing’s nearly 20,000 buses stared using cleaner fuels in 2007.
The quality of refined oil of the city is satisfactory. An inspection in the fourth quarter of last year found that 97 percent of the refined oil supplied by automobile distributors met the national standard.

The new standards may cut sulphur dioxide emissions, but the number of cars are still growing, so how much can the air quality be improved? And besides, the standard comes out only eight months before the Olympics, so you can’t expect the sky turning from grey to blue in no time 😉

It will be interesting to see if the athletes can finish their events.