Air quality for the JO

'I hope the world's athletes will not be overly worried about air quality.'

      
      

                  Yu Xiaoxuan, environment director of the Beijing organising committee          

      

                        Interview by Jonathan Watts
Thursday  August    9, 2007
The Guardian
         
             

He looks like a man under stress: as one of the most senior officials in charge of air quality, Yu Xiaoxuan knows that Beijing's environmental problems are the biggest publicly stated concern of the International Olympic Committee.

In the days before our interview, the pollution index hit its worst point this summer. At noon, the skies were dark with exhaust fumes, dust from building sites and factory emissions. The 200mg of particulate matter in every cubic metre of air was four times worse than the level considered safe in Europe and twice as bad as Beijing's own standard. The higher the level, the greater the risk of lung disease and the worse the impact on athletic performances.

---

---

It is hard not to feel sorry for Yu. Beijing's pollution problems have built up over two decades and all 14 million residents are responsible. But he is the one carrying the can. Yet, official numbers suggest an improvement on the recent past. "Since 2002, when Beijing gained the right to host the Olympics, the air quality has improved every year," says Yu. "But we are a developing country. In the short term we cannot reach the standards of London, Paris or New York."

He points out that the city is in the process of switching its 1,100 coal-burning power plants to gas, reducing emissions of sulphur and nitrogen dioxide from the five main electricity generators and cutting production at the biggest iron company by 4m tonnes. More than 2,000 old buses and 5,000 taxis are being upgraded or replaced with cleaner models. The subway line network has almost been doubled to 200km.

But although environment spending has increased from 5.7bn yuan (£370m) in 1998 to 23bn yuan (£1.5bn) last year, clean-up efforts have struggled to keep up with the mess made by a supercharged economy. Beijing's GDP has doubled since 2006, energy output has ramped up 30% and 2 million more people have been added to the population. "I feel big pressure," Yu says. "Foreign athletes and visitors from developed countries will feel a big gap in the environment between here and their countries. Our own government is not satisfied, nor are experts."

Many building sites and polluting factories will be closed for the duration of the event and meteorologists are planning a barrage of rockets to induce rain to clean the roads, and the air.

Yu acknowledges, however, that all this could come to naught if there is no wind in the run-up to the games - pollution quickly builds up and chokes the city if it is not blown away every few days. He is optimistic that levels of particulate matter can be kept below the city's standard of 100mg a cubic metre. "I think God will help us. In August and July there is usually plenty of wind and rain in Beijing. With this and all our hard work in the coming year, plus the temporary measures during the games, we can keep the figure under 100 for the Olympics."

Even if it goes higher, he says, visitors should not be worried. "According to our statistics, if the figure is between 100 and 150 it only affects the health of the most sensitive group. I can't deny that there is a link between environment quality and sports performance. But if the figure is not that bad it won't have a big impact. People should remember that at the last Olympics, China came second in the medal table even though most of our athletes trained in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities with similar conditions. I hope the world's athletes will not be overly worried about air quality."

Despite the pressure, he says he is glad the Olympics is putting more of a focus on the environment. "I had no idea what my job would entail when I was assigned to environmental protection in 1974. But in the years since, I have become very passionate about it."