15 April 2005
Beijing Cleans Air for 2008 Olympics with U.S. Help
Efforts include major reductions in coal use, tough emission standards
This article is one in a series on U.S.-China economic relations.
Washington -- The Department of Energy (DOE) is leading a U.S. multi-agency team to help Beijing keep its promise to the International Olympic Committee to achieve World Health Organization (WHO) standards for urban air quality by 2008, in time for the Summer Olympics.
The city’s strategy for meeting this goal depends on major reductions in coal use, tougher fuel-quality and emissions standards and further development of a protective greenbelt that separates north China from an encroaching desert whose winds fill the city air with silt.
“The Chinese government intends to invest $17 billion to $23 billion for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games,” said Lee Gebert, China desk officer in DOE’s Office of International Science and Technology Cooperation.
“Beijing wanted to improve its image and upgrade its infrastructure, and they’re using the Olympics as a catalyst to do this,” she said.
In 2002, the vice mayor of Beijing and a top DOE official signed a statement of intent to cooperate on clean energy technologies. DOE also committed to provide technical assistance in energy and environmental policy and planning for the 2008 Olympics. The “Green Olympics Protocol,” an official agreement between DOE and Beijing, was signed in 2004.
The first U.S.-China Joint Working Group (JWG) for the Green Olympics Protocol planning meeting took place in December 2002, with representatives from China and from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Transit Administration, and the departments of Energy, State, Commerce and Agriculture.
The JWG identified 10 areas for cooperation – natural-gas technology; combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP); clean coal; hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicle demonstration; environmentally friendly buildings; urban transportation; air quality; water quality; solar photovoltaics; and a Beijing-Chicago Friendship Cities Initiative to promote local environmental activities.
The JWG has met three times and established 10 teams, one to work in each area of cooperation. U.S. companies participated in the third meeting, held in Chicago in November 2004 at the DOE Argonne National Laboratory.
“We indeed have a public-private partnership,” Gebert said, “and we hope to continue to do this kind of work – helping industry deploy clean energy technology for the Olympics and hopefully replicating the technology throughout China.”
Gebert said a Hydrogen Park in the Olympic Village will demonstrate hydrogen technology by operating five buses using Hythane® technology – a mix of hydrogen and natural gas.
General Motors has agreed to donate a zero-emissions electric bus to use during the Olympics, she said.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the keystone of Beijing’s commitment to reaching WHO urban air standards by 2008 is to reduce coal consumption in the capital to 15 million metric tons yearly, in contrast to an unconstrained consumption forecast of 33.6 million metric tons.
City officials plan to achieve this goal by substituting natural gas, electricity and liquid petroleum gas for coal as a household heating and cooking fuel. Other plans call for shutting down coking ovens in big industrial plants and substituting natural gas for coal in some electricity generation.
For example, the Chinese are very interested in CCHP technology, which combines cooling, heat and power.
“It’s a stand-alone system,” Gebert said, “like bringing a small-scale power plant into a building. You can provide electricity to a small building -- for example, a hospital or supermarket -- using natural gas, not coal, for cooling, heating and electricity, and you don’t have to be connected to the grid.”
Three buildings in Beijing might implement CCHP technology in time for the Olympics, she said.
Solar photovoltaics -- converting sunlight into electricity – will also have a place in the Olympics. This technology will be used in the Olympic Village to light street lamps and heat swimming pools.
The aggressive program of improvements to air and water quality, transportation, energy production and more will probably be complete before the Olympics, by 2007, Gebert said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
