China adopted stricter auto emission standards equivalent to
Euro II on Thursday in order to force polluters off the road, the
State Environment
Protection Administration (SEPA) announced Thursday in
Beijing.??
The new standards require a 30.4 percent cut in CO and a 55.8
reduction in HC and NO from the Euro I standards currently in
place, said SEPA Vice Director Wang Jirong.
Traffic enforcement departments will not register new motor
vehicles failing to meet Euro II requirements. Manufacturing, sales
and export of Euro I vehicles will be forbidden within one
year.
Adopting Euro I standards in 2000, Chinese manufacturers
abandoned models without exhaust cleaning equipment and jumped to
Euro I designs.
The government made the Euro II standards public in 2001 and
promised a 30 percent cut in excise taxes on qualified models. So
far, 8,953 models have met the standards. Shanghai and Beijing
adopted them in 2003, ahead of the rest of the country.
"Euro II marks a new epoch in China's efforts to reduce auto
emission, but it is never the end of the road," Wang said, adding
that SEPA has developed new Euro III-equivalent standards and will
adopt them nationwide in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2004)