Shanghai to spend $1.63B over next 3 years to target air pollution, especially PM2.5

29 February 2012

Shanghai Daily. The city of Shanghai, China will spend 10.3 billion yuan (US$1.63 billion) on 53 projects targeting air pollution, especially for PM2.5 control, over the next three years. The city will begin publicly reporting PM_2.5 in June.

Exhaust from motor vehicles and boats account for 25% of the PM_2.5, according to the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said yesterday. Another major contributor is the spreading of sandstorms from northern China, which account for 20% of Shanghai’s PM2.5 measurement.

According to the plan, local government will eliminate high-polluting vehicles and control discharges from key industrial plants to reduce PM2.5, which pose major health risks in addition to affecting air quality and visibility.

Currently, there are over 200,000 high-polluting vehicles on local roads. Their exhaust discharge is 20 to 30 times that of new cars. Shanghai will expand the areas banning these high-polluting vehicles and eliminate 150,000 of them by 2014. It will also adopt a stricter National V emission standard, equivalent to European V, on new cars, as well as require cleaner fuel, next year.