Experts evaluate Beijing's anti-pollution goal

Fog shrouds the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, capital of China, July 3, 2014. Fog and smog hit Beijing on July 3 and serious pollution was reported by local environmental bureau. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Wen]

Experts attending a UN forum suggest there are a number of challenges involved in tackling pollution in the Chinese capital.

As one of the bidding cities of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Beijing has extra incentive for meeting its goal to keep PM2.5 readings under 60 micrograms per cubic meter by 2017.

Pan Jiahua is director of the Centre for Urban Development and Environment at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He says Beijing's role as a congested metropolis needs to be re-evaluated and adjusted if its pollution goals are to be met.

"For the stated goal, 2017 is too ambitious. Population is the most challenging problem for Beijing. People come to the city, and then you have to create jobs, you have more traffic, and all that inevitably leads to increased emissions. If Beijing can't shift its functions and decentralize the population, it won't bring down PM 2.5."

Pan has made the remarks at a forum entitled "A China Story: Two-New Pathways to Urbanization", being held at the United Nation's headquarters in New York.

2013 marked the beginning of Beijing's "Five-Year Clean Air Action Plan".

According to the municipal environmental agency, the city cut down the use of coal by 130 tons last year and continued to control the number of cars. And new technologies have been used to reduce emissions.

Professor Zhu Dajian, Director of the Institute of Governance for Sustainable Development, Tongji University, is a guest speaker at the UN forum.

He says it's not enough to rely on technological innovation alone.

"Technology is really important but they are efficiency oriented. For example, we can have a lot of less emission cars, but they are still cars. Even you improve the efficiency but still if everyone wants to take a car, you'll still have the traffic. We should take some social innovation not just technical innovation. Social innovation means behavior change."

By behavior change, Professor Zhu says sharing a car instead of owning a car is an example of what he's talking about.

And he says the city needs to change the way it functions, with the goal being to shrink in size.

That would involve building neighborhoods where living, working, and entertainment areas are all within walking distance of each other.

The Professor suggests that the country can combine its usual top-down approach to governance with the western bottom-up method to speed up its sustainable development.