BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities released a plan Wednesday requiring the heavily polluted cities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province to put more new-energy buses on the road to cut pollution.
China aims to promote the use of 20,222 new-energy cars in the region's public transport system from 2014 to 2015, according to the plan jointly released by seven departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and National Development and Reform Commission.
By the end of 2015, new-energy vehicles should take no less than 16 percent of the total buses in those regions, the plan said. The number of charging posts are estimated to reach 19,657.
The announcement is the latest government effort to address the increasingly serious pollution in the area.
Beijing and eight of its neighboring cities were among the 10 Chinese cities with the worst air quality in the third quarter this year.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on average suffered from air pollution 45 percent of the days in the third quarter, according to Tuesday's data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
It did not say what the major pollutant in the region were, though earlier reports released in August had pointed to ozone and PM2.5.
China began to include PM2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, and ozone in its new air quality standard in 2013, as a series of choking smog spells raised public concerns.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be once again be shrouded by smog beginning Thursday, the local observatory has predicted. Editor: A
Poster Comment:
China to boost new energy vehicles BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The State Council on Monday issued a guideline to promote new energy vehicles, highlighting construction of charging facilities and elimination of regional protectionism. The guideline called for layouts of charging facilities to be mapped and technological standards to be made, and non-governmental funds are encouraged to participate in construction of charging facilities. Among the 25 specific policies issued Monday, seven aim to improve charging facilities through urban planning, electricity prices and technological improvements. Local governments are not allowed to make their own standards on new energy vehicles and charging facilities, and they are not allowed to put additional requirements on auto producers to impede new energy autos from entering local markets, according to the guideline. The public sector will take the lead in using new energy autos, the guideline said. New energy vehicles should be no less than 30 percent of the total newly purchased vehicles in government departments in the coming two years, according to the guideline. Consumers will enjoy tax cuts to buy new energy vehicles from Sept. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2017, it said. The new policies are a followup to the Energy-Saving and New Energy Automobile Industry Development Layout (2012-2020) issued in 2012, and they will energize the market and boost the healthy development of the sector, said Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology. China produced 20,692 and sold 20,477 new energy automobiles in the first half of the year, up 18.01 and 16.07 percent from 2013's total production and sales respectively. Editor: An