In a bid to tackle pollution China will take 5.3m polluting vehicles off the road by the end of the year
A "Yellow label" to be "eliminated" Image: Denizen24 |
China has announced plans to remove more than five million ageing vehicles from its roads this year in an effort to combat pollution.
In Beijing alone, the municipality has slated 330,000 cars to be decomissioned, according to a governmental policy document. A separate State Council document showed the country had already missed pollution targets over the 2011-2013 period.
As many as 5.3m "yellow label" cars that fall below both local and national standards will be "eliminated" this year, with over 660,000 being removed from Hebei province, home to seven of China's most polluted cities.
Beijing will limit the number of cars on the road to 5.6m in 2014, rising to 6m by 2017. The city will also pay for 200,000 older models to be upgraded. The policy document did not say how the process of elimination would work, but previous schemes have offered subsidies for trading-in old vehicles. However, subsidies are unlikely to cover cars that fail to meet certain gasoline standards.
Similar "cash for clunkers" schemes were discussed in 2012, but for very different reasons. Two years ago the government was contemplating the program to help spur auto sales after a slowdown in purchases.
Despite falling behind on pollution targets, a recent report has shown China's spending on energy saving and environmental protection in 2013 rose 14.2% year-on-year to 338bn yuan ($54bn).