Chinese cities investing in air quality

Chinese cities are increasingly investing in measures to improve air quality to boost tourism and foreign investment, a leading Chinese scientist said on Tuesday.

Professor He Kebin, Dean at the School of Environment at the Tsingua University, was speaking at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya where decision-makers from around the world are meeting to address the global environmental agenda.

Chinese cities are still a long way from the standards set by United Nations agency the World Health Organization (WHO).

Professor He said that a combination of measures have been implemented to cut pollution, but Chinese industrial manufacturers of products including cars are faced with the challenge of dealing with consumer demand.

"We have recorded good progress in improving air quality in the last 15 years but we can still say that these improvements are work in progress. There is a big gap between what we have achieved and the WHO guidelines," Professor He said.

"This is because these improvements are being made in bigger cities. At the same time, smaller cities may not be achieving these standards and you cannot contain the contamination of air," he added.

Bigger cities such as the capital Beijing, have made important improvement to air quality by reducing emissions from coal and vehicles through a combination of short-term and long-term measures, according to He.

Air quality in urban centres is one of the major themes at UNEA, which runs from 23-27 May.

With the growth of the Chinese economy over the past few decades, consumer preferences have forced car manufacturers to continue producing higher capacity engines, leading to an increase in emissions, He said.

Professor He said: "The car emission standards are working for the manufacturers. They have contributed to the air quality improvements and fuel efficiency. The steps are also focused on low sulphur diesel fuels and lead-free fuels. It is possible for China to get to less and less average air pollution."

There are more than 1,500 air quality monitoring stations in cities across China that are linked to space stations and provide environmental data on the status of the environment for some 300 cities in China.

"The government is able to rank these cities based on the air quality monitoring reports. The cities will poor rankings are constantly under public pressure to improve to avoid losing investments and tourists. The Mayors of these cities are opening up for major emission trading enterprises," He added.

The UNEA is hosted at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) whose Executive Director, Achim Steiner, urged countries to acquire the technologies to monitor the air quality in their cities and towns.