The Chinese Government has set official guidelines for introducing new emissions standards.
China’s State Council recently announced its detailed timeline for upgrading nationwide fuel emission quality to the China National V standard, with a maximum sulphur content of 10ppm for both gasoline and diesel.
Clear line of sight Image: Jonathan Kos Reed |
According to the announcement, National IV diesel fuel (max sulphur content of 50ppm) will be fully phased in by the end of 2014. National V diesel and gasoline fuel quality standards, both of which have a max sulphur content of 10ppm, will be phased in by the end of 2017.
The goal of the plan is to reduce Beijing’s PM2.5 concentration by 25% from 2012 by 2017. The plan is ambitious, but would still mean the air quality in the capital would be nearly double China’s ambient air quality annual standard.
Other initiatives put forward by the comprehensive plan were limiting the total vehicles in the city to less than 6m by 2017; increasing the cost of vehicle usage through congestion charges; restricting vehicle use by time and location; and scrapping old vehicles.
However, a similar, more ambitious proposal released by the government two weeks before the announcement proposed that all heavy-duty diesel vehicles as well as public buses should meet the National V standards by the end of next year.
The first proposal also called for all off-road equipment to meet National IV standards or better by the beginning of 2015, and for China VI standards to be in place by 2016.
While the latest proposal is less radical than the first, a realistic and sustained effort to reducing pollution and improving emissions standards will be welcomed by the capital’s population.