Out of concern for its air quality, Beijing has stepped up efforts to phase out old, heavy-polluting motor vehicles, the local environmental watchdog said Tuesday.
A total of 515,000 obsolete motor vehicles have been taken off the city’s roads over the past two years, exceeding the goal of removing 400,000 such vehicles that was set in a municipal five-year development plan (2011-2015), according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
Motor vehicles contribute to about 22.2 percent of a city’s PM2.5 data, a gauge monitoring airborne “fine” particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter, and old vehicles release more pollutants, said Fang Li, a spokesman with the bureau, citing an analysis of the city’s pollution sources.
Beijing is suffering from poor air quality, with this year’s average PM2.5 data reaching 70-80 micrograms per cubic meter, twice the regulated standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
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