Beijing, host of the 2008 Olympic Games, is futher developing its recycling efforts, an official said on Wednesday.
The city has drawn up plans to reduce the consumption of energy by five percent, water by four percent, chemical oxygen demand (COD) by four percent and emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 10 percent per unit of gross domestic product (GDP), said Wang Haiping, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
To achieve these goals, he said at a press conference at the Beijing Olympic Media Center, Beijing will embark on 10 projects, including a readjustment of its economic structure; promotion of new technologies and products; reduction of emissions in order to improve the environment for the Olympics; energy-saving efforts at government agencies, large public buildings and in industries that consume a large amount of energy; "green illumination"; a model project featuring recycled energies; and water-saving.
Specifically, Wang said, the city will continue to phase out and replace old technology, buildings facilities and energy systems that don't conform to new standards. This process includes discontinuing old buses and taxies and replacing coal heating systems with electrical heating in 50,000 households.
The 2008 "action plan" for a "Green Olympics" also involves improved monitoring of key polluters, stricter law-enforcement, higher standards and better assessment and examination procedures.
Beijing began implementing the annual "action plan" in 2005 to promote resource-saving and environmentally-friendly concepts in its economic development and preparations for the Olympics.
In 2007, Beijing made impressive progress in building an energy efficient city: its energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 5.11 percent; water consumption by 9.6 percent, COD and SO2 emissions were down 3.2 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
